Power control system for transmission chain in a transceiver

ABSTRACT

A transceiver is provided that has a power control system, which can internally control the current power level of a transmission signal within a physical uplink channel. The transceiver includes a transmitter circuit with a coupler, which generates a transmit feedback signal having a signal level associated with the current power level of the transmission signal. In this manner, the transceiver can internally detect the current power level of the transmission signal and accurately adjust the current power level based on transmission power control (TPC) information received from the base station.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of provisional patent applicationSer. No. 61/379,019, filed Sep. 1, 2010, the disclosure of which ishereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

This disclosure relates to power control systems and methods thatcontrol the power level of transmission signals and receive signals in atransceiver. More particularly, this disclosure relates to power controlsystems associated with the transmitter circuit, the receiver circuit,and the antenna tuner in the transceiver of a mobile user device, whichcontrol the power level of the transmission signals and the receivesignals.

BACKGROUND

With the advent of 3G and 4G networks and the development of transportchannels with higher modulation bandwidth and data rates, such as LongTerm Evolution (LTE) transport channels, increasing the quality of thelink between the base station and the mobile user device is critical toimproving service. One of the most difficult problems in maintaining aquality link between the mobile user device and the base station is theconstant variation of objects and fluctuating environmental conditionsbetween the mobile user device and the base station. For example, anantenna's input impedance as seen from a base station can fluctuatechaotically as a user varies the placement of his body relative to theantenna. These problems may be particularly problematic for mobile userdevices having transceivers that both transmit and receive from the sameantenna. The antenna tuner in these systems must be capable of beingtuned so that a receive signal can be received from the base stationwithin a physical downlink channel and a transmission signal can betransmitted to the base station within a physical uplink channel, on thesame antenna.

One prior art method of maintaining a quality link between the mobileuser device and the base station is to use a directional coupler in ordirectly connected to the antenna tuner of the mobile user device. Thedirection coupler detects a mismatch between the power level of thetransmission signal being received by the antenna tuner and the powerlevel reflected back from the antenna tuner. In other words, directionalcouplers are utilized to measure the S11 parameter of an antenna tuner.However, optimizing the S11 parameter of the antenna tuner when bothtransmission signals and receive signals are being transmitted throughthe antenna tuner does not guarantee optimization of the power level ofthe transmission signal delivered at the antenna. Similarly, optimizingthe S11 parameter is not directly related to and does not guaranteeoptimization of the power level of the receive signal at the receivercircuit of the transceiver.

Utilizing the direction coupler with the antenna tuner to determine thepower level of the transmission signal also limits the ability of thetransmission circuit to adjust the power level in accordance withtransmission power control (TPC) information sent from the base station.As is known in the art, base stations may provide TPC information to themobile user device to request a change in the power level of thetransmission signal being provided by the mobile user device to the basestation. The transmitter circuit of the transceiver in the mobile devicewill change the amplification provided at the transmitter circuit of thetransceiver to adjust the power level of the transmission signal.Similarly, the antenna tuner may adjust its impedance to adjust thepower level as requested by the base station. Unfortunately, since thedirectional tuner only measures the S11 parameter and both thetransmission signal and the receive signal are being transmitted throughthe antenna tuner, the mobile device cannot detect whether the powerlevel of the transmission signal was actually adjusted in accordancewith the TPC information. Instead, the actual change of the power levelof the transmission signal is not known until the transmission signalreaches the base station. This limits both the speed and the accuracy atwhich power changes to the transmission signal can be made.

Another problem with prior art transceivers having antenna tunersutilized with both transmission signals and receive signals is that theQ-factor of the pass band for the antenna tuner is limited by thebandwidth of the pass band. This limitation is known as the Bode-Fanolimit and may be expressed for a parallel RC load impedance as:

${\int_{0}^{\infty}{\ln\frac{1}{{\Gamma(\omega)}}{\mathbb{d}\omega}}} = \frac{\pi}{RC}$

where ω is the angular frequency, R is the resistance value of theresistor, C is the capacitance value of the capacitor and Γ(ω) is thereflection coefficient of the antenna tuner. If we assume maximummismatch outside of the pass band and maximum matching within the passband, and we substitute using the known definition of the Q-factor forthe pass band, the relationship between the Q-factor and bandwidth maybe expressed as:

$\frac{\omega\; c}{Q} = {\Delta\omega}$where ωc is the center frequency of the pass band, Δω is the 3 dBbandwidth, and Q is the Q-factor.

This expressions show that that the bandwidth is inversely proportion tothe Q-factor. Thus to increase the bandwidth we must decrease theQ-factor. As a result, a prior art antenna tuner in a mobile device thatreceives both the receive signal within a physical downlink channel anda transmission signal within a physical uplink channel has a Q-factor.Based on the expression shown above and if we assume that the reflectioncoefficient is substantially uniform throughout the pass band of theantenna tuner, the O-factor of the pass band of the prior art antennatuner is limited by the offset between the receive frequency defined bythe physical downlink channel and the transmission frequency defined bythe physical uplink channel. This is because this is the minimumbandwidth required to receive and transmit on the physical downlinkchannel and physical uplink channel. Thus, it would be desirable toincrease the Q-factor toward the receive frequency and sacrifice theQ-factor at the transmission frequency, or vice versa, to increase thequality of the link between the mobile device and the antenna. Ideallyhowever, it would be desirable to provide simultaneous matching at boththe receive frequency and the transmission frequency and not have tosacrifice the Q-factor at either the receive frequency or transmissionfrequency.

SUMMARY

This disclosure includes embodiments of a transceiver for a mobile userdevice that helps ensure that a current power level of a transmissionsignal is adjusted in accordance with transmission power control (TPC)information from a base station. This TPC information from the basestation may include data for adjusting the current power level of thetransmission signal to a first desired transmission power level. Forexample, the TPC information may include power step informationindicating a magnitude of power change and direction informationdefining a direction of power change.

In one embodiment, the transceiver includes a transmitter circuit thatis operable to up convert the transmission signal into a physical uplinkchannel for transmission by an antenna to the base station. Thetransceiver may also include a receiver circuit that is operable to downconvert a receive signal out of a physical downlink channel and processthe information of the receive signal, including the TPC informationtransmitted by the base station within the receive signal. Thetransmitter circuit has a transmit amplification circuit having a firstadjustable gain and is operable to amplify the transmission signal inaccordance with the first adjustable gain. This transmit amplificationcircuit may include one or more amplification devices within thetransmitter circuit. Also included in the transmitter circuit is acoupler that is connected to generate a transmit feedback signal havinga signal level associated with the current power level of thetransmission signal.

A transceiver power control system may be connected with the transmittercircuit to receive the transmit feedback signal. Since the coupler isprovided within the transmitter circuit, the transceiver power controlsystem may be provided with a forward power measurement of the currentpower level of the transmission signal by the transmit feedback signal.To change the current power level of the transmission signal to thedesired transmission power level, the transceiver power control systemis configured to adjust the first adjustable gain of the transmissionamplification circuit based on the signal level of the transmit feedbacksignal and the TPC information. This reduces a difference between thecurrent power level of the transmission signal and the desiredtransmission power level. The transceiver power control system may alsodetermine if the current power level of the transmissions signal waschanged in accordance with the TPC information and continue to adjustthe current power level of the transmission signal, if the differencebetween the current power level of the transmission signal and the firstdesired power level was not eliminated by the previous adjustment of thefirst adjustable gain.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate the scope of the presentdisclosure and realize additional aspects thereof after reading thefollowing detailed description of the preferred embodiments inassociation with the accompanying drawing figures.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

The accompanying drawing figures incorporated in and forming a part ofthis specification illustrate several aspects of this disclosure, andtogether with the description serve to explain the principles of thisdisclosure.

FIG. 1 illustrates a mobile user device having one embodiment of atransceiver in accordance with this disclosure.

FIG. 1A illustrates one embodiment of a coupler provided in atransmitter circuit of the transceiver shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 2 illustrates one embodiment of a transceiver power control system.

FIG. 3 illustrates one embodiment of a transceiver power controlsoftware module.

FIG. 4 illustrates one embodiment of a communication system having amobile user device and a base station.

FIG. 5 illustrates one embodiment of a data element for one type oftransmission signal.

FIG. 6 illustrates one embodiment of a data element for one type ofreceive signal.

FIG. 7 illustrates one embodiment of a power control process implementedby a transmit power control software module.

FIG. 8 illustrates one embodiment of a receive power control informationgeneration process implemented by a receive power control softwaremodule.

FIG. 9 illustrates one embodiment of a power control process implementedby the receive power control software module.

FIG. 10 illustrates one embodiment of an S11 response for oneconfiguration of the antenna tuner shown in FIG. 1 having one type ofpass band.

FIG. 11 illustrates one embodiment of a pass band adjustment processimplemented by an antenna tuner software module.

FIG. 12 illustrates the pass band shown in FIG. 10 degraded towards areceive frequency to increase the Q-factor at a transmission frequency.

FIG. 13 illustrates the pass band shown in FIG. 10 degraded towards thetransmission frequency to increase the Q-factor at the receivefrequency.

FIG. 14 illustrates one embodiment of a power control processimplemented by an antenna tuner software module.

FIG. 15 illustrates another embodiment of an S11 response for anotherconfiguration of the antenna tuner shown in FIG. 1 having another typeof pass band.

FIG. 16 illustrates one embodiment of an S33 response for theconfiguration of the antenna tuner having the S11 response shown in FIG.15.

FIG. 17 illustrates one embodiment of an antenna tuner configured toprovide the S11 response shown in FIG. 15.

FIG. 18 illustrates another embodiment of an antenna tuner configured toprovide a S11 response similar to the one shown in FIG. 15.

FIG. 19 illustrates yet another embodiment of an antenna tunerconfigured to provide a S11 response similar to the one shown in FIG.15.

FIG. 20 illustrates one embodiment of a dual band antenna tuner.

FIG. 21 illustrates another embodiment of a dual band antenna tuner.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The embodiments set forth below represent the necessary information toenable those skilled in the art to practice the embodiments andillustrate the best mode of practicing the embodiments. Upon reading thefollowing description in light of the accompanying drawing figures,those skilled in the art will understand the concepts of the disclosureand will recognize applications of these concepts not particularlyaddressed herein. It should be understood that these concepts andapplications fall within the scope of the disclosure and theaccompanying claims.

Furthermore, embodiments described in this disclosure may describecertain systems as being implemented using software modules. As isapparent to one of ordinary skill in the art, any system that usessoftware modules implemented using computer executable instructions andgeneral purpose computer hardware, such as processors, have a hardwiredhardware circuit analog that utilizes hardwired hardware specificallyconfigured to provide the same functionality as the software module.Accordingly, this disclosure does not intend to limit the systemsdescribed herein to software implementations. Instead, these systems maybe implemented using software modules, hardwired hardware circuits, orsome combination of both software modules and hardwired hardwarecircuits. All of these implementations are considered to be within thescope of this disclosure.

The disclosure relates to embodiments of a transceiver that may be usedin mobile user devices, power control systems associated with thetransceiver that control the current power levels of transmissionsignals and receive signals, and methods of operating the same. FIG. 1illustrates a block diagram of one embodiment of a mobile user device 8having a transceiver 10 in accordance with this disclosure. In thisembodiment, the transceiver 10 has an antenna 12, an antenna tuner 14, amultiplexer 16, a transmitter circuit 18, a receiver circuit 20, afrequency synthesizer 22, and a baseband integrated circuit (BBIC) 24. Atransmission signal 26 is transmitted within a physical uplink channeland a receive signal 28 is received within a physical downlink channelat the antenna 12. The antenna tuner 14 tunes a pass band of the antennatuner 14 so that both the transmission signal 26 within the physicaluplink channel and the receive signal 28 within the physical downlinkchannel can be transmitted and received by the same antenna 12.

The multiplexer 16 is coupled between the antenna tuner 14 and thetransmitter circuit 18 and also between the antenna tuner 14 and thereceiver circuit 20. In this embodiment, the multiplexer 16 operates asa duplexer. The multiplexer 16 includes a first multiplexer port 30, asecond multiplexer port 32, and a third multiplexer port 34. The firstmultiplexer port 30 is connected to the antenna tuner 14 to transmit thetransmission signal 26 within the physical uplink channel from thetransmitter circuit 18 to the antenna tuner 14 and to receive thereceive signal 28 within the physical downlink channel from the antenna12. The illustrated multiplexer 16 operates as a duplexer and includesfiltering that may be tuned to the physical uplink channel and physicaldownlink channel. The second multiplexer port 32 is connected to thetransmitter circuit 18 to receive the transmission signal 26 within thephysical uplink channel from the transmitter circuit 18. The thirdmultiplexer port 34 is connected to the receiver circuit 20 to transmitthe receive signal 28 within the physical downlink channel to thereceiver circuit 20.

While the transceiver 10 is illustrated as receiving a singletransmission signal 26 and a single receive signal 28, the antenna 12may actually transmit various additional transmission signals eachtransmitted on a different physical uplink channels and receive variousadditional receive signals each received on various different physicaldownlink channels. For example, in 3G and 4G networks, the transceiver10 may send a plurality of different transmission signals within variousdifferent physical uplink channels to a base station and receive aplurality of different receive signals within various different physicaldownlink channels from the base station. As would be apparent to one ofordinary skill in the art in light of this disclosure, the transceiver10 may include additional circuitry, for example, additional paralleltransmitter chains and additional receiver chains, partially paralleltransmitter chains and additional receiver chains (i.e. additionaltransmitter chains and additional receiver chains that share some butnot all circuit components and may also include circuitry for specificphysical downlink channels and specific physical uplink channels), forthe various different physical uplink channels and different physicaldownlink channels. The different physical uplink channels and differentphysical downlink channels are defined by a transmission frequency and areceive frequency, respectively, but transmission signals and receivesignals within these physical uplink channels and physical downlinkchannels may also be distinguished by time-division modulationtechniques, frequency divisional modulation techniques, andcode-division modulation techniques, or the like, and in addition somecombination of any of the aforementioned techniques. The multiplexer 16may thus provide filtering for some or all of these additionaltransmission signals within the various different physical uplinkchannels and additional receive signals within the various additionaldownlink channels. The first multiplexer port 30, second multiplexerport 32, and third multiplexer port 34 thus may include one or moreswitches to switch among the different transmitter chains and receiverchains of the transceiver 10 and also to provide time divisionmodulation in accordance to a start time and stop time, if necessary.

In FIG. 1, the transmitter circuit 18 operates to up convert thetransmission signal 26 generated by the BBIC 24 into the physical uplinkchannel. The transmission signal 26 may be generated at baseband or atan intermediate frequency (IF) by the BBIC 24. To transmit thetransmission signal 26 to the base station, the transmitter circuit 18places the transmission signal 26 within the physical uplink channel.The physical uplink channel is defined by a transmission frequency butmay also be associated with a scrambling code, channel code, start andstop time, and phase (0 or

$\frac{\pi}{2}$radians for in-phase and quadrature phase signals transmitted from theantenna 12 separately), a specific orthogonal signature sequence, and/orthe like. The BBIC 24 may output the transmission signal 26 at basebandor in the alternative at an intermediate frequency (IF), and code thesignal in accordance to the scrambling code and/or channel code. Thetransmission signal 26 may already be encoded by the BBIC 24 inaccordance to the scrambling code and/or channel code prior to being upconverted within the physical uplink channel. Also, the BBIC 24 maygenerate the transmission signal 26 as an in phase signal and aquadrature phase signal.

To provide the transmission signal 26 within the physical uplinkchannel, the transmitter circuit 18 includes an up converter circuit 36,such as a mixer circuit, that is configured to up convert thetransmission signal 26. The up converter circuit 36 may receive a localoscillation signal 38 from the frequency synthesizer operating at alocal oscillation frequency. The local oscillation frequency is providedso that the transmission signal 26 operates at the transmissionfrequency of the physical uplink channel. The up converter circuit 36may also combine the in phase signal and the quadrature phase signal togenerate a single signal, if the BBIC 24 originally generated thetransmission signal 26 as the aforementioned orthogonal signals.

Upon up converting the transmission signal 26 into the physical uplinkchannel, the transmitter circuit 18 may include a filter circuit 29 toextract the appropriate harmonics of up converted transmission signal 26after being up converted by the up converter circuit 36. Subsequently,the transmitter circuit 18 includes a transmission amplification circuit40 that amplifies the transmission signal 26 in accordance to a firstadjustable gain. In the illustrated embodiment, the transmissionamplification circuit 40 is illustrated at a particular location withinthe transmitter circuit 18 and amplifies the transmission signal 26within the physical uplink channel. However, the transmissionamplification circuit 40 may be a single amplification device having asingle adjustable gain or may be a plurality of different amplificationdevices. One or more of the different amplification devices may haveadjustable gains and the cumulative gain of the plurality of differentamplification devices may provide the first adjustable gain. Thus, inthe alternative, the transmission amplification circuit 40 may includedifferent amplification devices at different locations of thetransmitter circuit 18.

Next, the transmission signal 26 may be provided to a coupler 42 that isoperable to generate a transmit feedback signal 44 having a signal levelassociated with a current power level of the transmission signal 26.Since the coupler 42 may be provided as part of the transmitter circuit18, the coupler 42 can detect the current power level of thetransmission signal 26 in isolation from the receive signal 28. Thetransmit feedback signal 44 may then be provided as feedback to the BBIC24. One of the advantages of the transceiver 10 is that the coupler 42may be provided to internally detect the forward power of thetransmission signal 26. Thus, the transceiver 10 can close a controlloop that controls the current power level of the transmission signal 26internally without having to wait for a base station to detect if thechange in power was actually provided accurately. In this embodiment,the coupler 42 is coupled between the multiplexer 16 and the transmittercircuit 18

The first adjustable gain may be controlled by a transmit power controldevice 45, which receives a transmission power control signal 46. Thetransmission power control signal 46 may be utilized by the transmitpower control device 45 to generate a gain control signal 47 that setsthe first adjustable gain. The transmission signal 26 may then beprovided to the second multiplexer port 32 of the multiplexer 16 fortransmission to the antenna 12.

Next, the transceiver 10 also includes the receiver circuit 20, which isoperable to down convert the receive signal 28 out of the physicaldownlink channel. The receive signal 28 was placed in the physicaldownlink channel by a base station. The receiver circuit 20 removes thereceive signal 28 from the physical downlink channel so that theinformation within the receive signal 28 may be processed by the BBIC24.

The physical downlink channel may be defined by a receive frequency. Thephysical downlink channel may also be associated with a scrambling code,channel code, start and stop time, and phase (0 or

$\frac{\pi}{2}$radians for in-phase and quadrature phase signals received at theantenna 12 separately), a specific orthogonal signature sequence, and/orthe like. The first multiplexer port 30 and/or third multiplexer port 34may include one or more switches to select among various receive chains,and so that the receive signal 28 is received in accordance to the startand stop time, if required. The receive signal 28 is received within thephysical downlink channel by the receiver circuit 20 from the thirdmultiplexer port 34 of the multiplexer 16. The receiver circuit 20 mayinclude a low noise amplifier (LNA) 48, an IF converter circuit 50, andan IF power amplifier 52. The LNA 48 and the IF power amplifier 52 areprovided at different parts of the receiver circuit 20 to form part of areceiver amplification circuit 54. Additional amplification devices maybe provided or, in the alternative, the receiver amplification circuit54 may be a single amplification device provided at a single location ofthe receiver circuit 20. The LNA 48 filters and amplifies the receivesignal 28 within the physical downlink channel and the IF poweramplifier 52 amplifies the receive signal 28 after being down convertedout of the physical downlink channel by the IF converter circuit 50. Thegains of the LNA 48 and IF power amplifier 52 combine to provide asecond adjustable gain of the receiver amplification circuit 54. Thegain of the LNA 48 and the IF power amplifier 52, and thus the receiveramplification circuit 54 are controlled by a receive power controldevice 56, which provides receive gain control signals 58, 60 to thereceiver amplification circuit 54 to control the second adjustable gain.The receive gain control signals 58, 60 may be controlled in accordanceto a receive power control signal 62 from the BBIC 24.

The IF converter circuit 50 may be a mixer circuit operable to downconvert the receive signal 28 out of the physical downlink channel to anIF frequency. In the alternative, a baseband converter may be providedto down convert to baseband. The frequency synthesizer 22 may provide alocal oscillation signal 64 having a local oscillation frequency suchthat the receive signal 28 is down converted from the receive frequencyof the physical downlink channel to the IF frequency. The BBIC 24 mayreceive the receive signal 28 at the IF frequency and further downconvert the receive signal 28 from the IF frequency to baseband. The IFconverter circuit 50 may also output the receive signal 28 as an inphase signal and a quadrature phase signal.

The BBIC 24 may receive the transmission signal 26 at baseband or in thealternative at an IF frequency, and decode the signal in accordance tothe scrambling code and/or channel code. Note that the receiver circuit20, in the alternative, may include a baseband converter, the localoscillation signal 64 may thus be the same as the local oscillationsignal 38. The frequency synthesizer 22 may receive a local oscillationsignal 65 from the BBIC 24 that allows the frequency synthesizer 22 togenerate the local oscillation signal 38 and the local oscillationsignal 64. Additional filter circuits (not shown) may be provided in thereceiver circuit 20 to filter unwanted harmonics of the receive signal28 after down converting to the IF frequency.

Note that the transmitter circuit 18 and receiver circuit 20 of FIG. 1are illustrated as having a single transmitter chain for the physicaluplink channel and a single receive chain for the physical downlinkchannel, respectively. However, the transmitter circuit 18 and receivercircuit 20 may also include a plurality of other transmitter chains andother receive chains for multiple physical uplink channels and physicaldownlink channels. These physical uplink channels and physical downlinkchannels may be associated with one another to form transport channels.The transport channel may include a single physical uplink channel andphysical downlink channel or a plurality of physical uplink channels andphysical downlink channels. The antenna 12 may receive transmissionsignals and receive signals from the physical uplink channels anddownlink channels of a multitude of transport channels. Switchesconnected to or within the first multiplexer port 30, the secondmultiplexer port 32, and/or the third multiplexer port 34 may coordinatesignal traffic among the antenna tuner 14 and the multiple transmitterchains in the transmitter circuit 18 and receive chains in the receivercircuit 20 for the various different transmission signals and receivesignals.

Referring again to FIG. 1, the BBIC 24 receives the receive signal 28 atbaseband or an IF frequency and processes the information providedwithin the receive signal 28. By receiving the receive signal 28, theBBIC 24 may determine a current power level of the receive signal 28. Inthe alternative, a receive feedback signal 66 having a signal levelassociated with the current power level of the receive signal 28 isprovided to the BBIC 24. Based on the current power level of the receivesignal 28 detected by the BBIC 24, the BBIC 24 may transmit the receivepower control signal 62 to the receive power control device 56 andcontrol the current power level of the receive signal 28, as explainedin further detail below. The receive power control device 56 generatesgain control signal 58, 60 based on the receive power control signal 62.The gain control signal 58 controls an adjustable gain of the LNA 48while the gain control signal 60 controls an adjustable gain of the IFpower amplifier 52. By controlling the adjustable gain of the LNA 48 andthe adjustable gain of the IF power amplifier 52, the receive powercontrol device 56 controls the second adjustable gain of the receiveramplification circuit 54. The receive power control device 56 and the IFpower amplifier 52 may be connected so as to form an automatic gaincontrol (AGC) loop. Thus, the IF power amplifier 52 may also utilize thereceive feedback signal 66 to provide automatic gain control foradjusting the second adjustable gain so that the current power level ofthe receive signal 28 is at the desired power level.

The transceiver 10 may also include an antenna tuner control device 68that generates impedance control signals 70, 72, 74, 76 that eachcontrol the variable reactance values of reactive impedance elementswithin the antenna tuner 14. For example, the antenna tuner 14 mayinclude various programmable capacitor arrays coupled to other reactivecomponents and configured to provide a pass band that admits thetransmission frequency of the physical uplink channel and receivefrequency of the physical downlink channel within the antenna tuner 14.Impedance control signals 70, 72, 74, 76 may control switches within theprogrammable capacitor arrays, therefore varying the capacitive value ofthe programmable capacitor array and therefore altering the impedanceresponse of the antenna tuner 14. In this manner, the antenna tunercontrol device 68 can adjust the pass band of the antenna tuner 14. Asexplained in further detail below, the antenna tuner 14 may also betuned to control the current power level of the transmission signal 26and the receive signal 28 by adjusting the pass band of the antennatuner 14. The BBIC 24 transmits an antenna tuner control signal 80 tothe antenna tuner control device 68. The antenna tuner control device 68generates the impedance control signals 70, 72, 74, 76 based on theantenna tuner control signal 80, and thus adjusts the pass band byvarying the impedance response of the antenna tuner 14.

The BBIC 24 may include a digital signal processor (DSP) 82 and anon-transitory computer readable medium, such as local memory 84. Thelocal memory 84 may store computer executable instructions that whenexecuted by the DSP 82 operate as software modules. The mobile userdevice 8 may also include a microprocessor 86, other control logic, anda non-transitory computer readable medium, such as local memory 88, thatare external to the BBIC 24. The local memory 88 may also store computerexecutable instructions that can be executed by the microprocessor 86 tooperate as software modules. Furthermore, the mobile user device 8 mayinclude a non-transitory computer readable medium, such as non-volatilememory devices 90 that may also be utilized to store computer executableinstructions that may be transferred to the local memory 84 and/or localmemory 88 and executed the DSP 82 and/or microprocessor 86. Thesesoftware modules may include a transceiver power control software modulefor a transceiver power control system, as explained in further detailbelow.

Next, the BBIC 24 may receive the receive signal 28, the transmitfeedback signal 44, and the receive feedback signal 66 as input signalsfrom the transceiver 10, and may transmit the transmission signal 26,the transmission power control signal 46, the local oscillation signal65, the receive power control signal 62, and the antenna tuner controlsignal 80 as output signals to the components of the transceiver 10. Toreceive and transmit the input and output signal from the transmittercircuit 18 and the receiver circuit 20, the BBIC 24 may include frontend interface devices 92. These front end interface devices 92 may haveanalog to digital (A/D) converters and other circuitry configured toprovide the input signals in the appropriate manner for the DSP 82 aswell as provide timing functions for communication with the DSP 82. Inthis embodiment, the receive signal 28, the transmit feedback signal 44,and the receive feedback signal 66 may be analog signals that need to beconverted into digital signal for processing by the DSP 82. In thealternative embodiments, the (A/D) converters may be provided externallyfrom the BBIC 24, for example within the transmitter circuit 18 andreceive circuit 20. Also, since the receive signal 28 is provided at anIF frequency, the front end interface devices 92 may also includedevices that down convert the receive signal 28 from the IF frequency tobaseband if necessary.

The front end interface devices 92 may also have digital to analog (D/A)converters and other circuitry to format the output signals inaccordance with the requirements of the transmitter circuit 18 andreceiver circuit 20. In this embodiment, the BBIC 24 generates thetransmission signal 26, the transmission power control signal 46, thereceive power control signal 62, and the antenna tuner control signal80, as digital signals. A D/A converter may be provided in the front endinterface device 92 to convert the transmission signal 26 into an analogsignal. In the alternative, the D/A converter may be provided within thetransmitter circuit 18. The transmission power control signal 46, thereceive power control signal 62, and the antenna tuner control signal 80may be provided to the transmit power control device 45, the receivepower control device 56, and the antenna tuner control device 68,respectively, as digital signals. However, the front end interfacedevices 92 may include formatting circuitry, voltage control circuitry,and the like, to provide the transmit power control device 45, thereceive power control device 56, and the antenna tuner control device68, in accordance with the requirements of the transmit power controldevice 45, the receive power control device 56, and the antenna tunercontrol device 68.

Note that the above discussion regarding the various signals of thetransceiver 10 and the DSP 82 are simply illustrative. For example, thetransmitter circuit 18 and receiver circuit 20 may have a plurality oftransmitter chains and receiver chains and thus the DSP 82 may provide aplurality of transmission power control signals and receive powercontrol signals to control amplification circuits in each transmitterchain and receiver chain. Alternative embodiments of the transceiver 10may have different signaling schemes in which the signals describedabove may actually be provided by a multitude of different signals orthe different signals described above may be provided within a singlesignal, and these signals may be digital, analog, or digital and analogat different parts of the transceiver 10. The particular signalingscheme employed by the transceiver 10 may depend on the electroniccomponents utilized in the transceiver 10 and the circuit topology ofthe antenna tuner 14, transmitter circuit 18, and the receiver circuit20. In turn, these electronic components and circuit topology may varyin accordance with the physical uplink channels and physical downlinkchannels processed by the transceiver 10.

Referring again to FIG. 1, the DSP 82 may extract the information fromthe receive signal 28 after receiving the receive signal 28 from thefront end interface devices 92. Some of the information from the receivesignal 28 may be transmitted to the microprocessor 86 and other controllogic of the mobile user device 8. To do this, the BBIC 24 may includeback end interface devices 94 that are operable to format and providetiming functions to communicate the information to the microprocessor86, other control logic, and the non-volatile memory devices 90. Theback end interface devices 94 may also be operable to transmitinformation to the components of the BBIC 24. Note that the front endinterface devices 92 and the back end interface devices 94 are notnecessarily mutually exclusive. For example, front end interface devices92 and back end interface devices 94 may share one or more communicationbuses for communicating with the DSP 82. These communication buses mayalso be utilized by the local memory 84 to communicate with the DSP 82.To generate the local oscillation signal 65, the BBIC 24 may include acontrolled oscillator 96. The controlled oscillator 96 may be operableto generate the local oscillation signal 65, which is processed by theDSP 82 and transmitted to the frequency synthesizer 22.

As shown in FIG. 1, the mobile user device 8 may include user input andoutput devices 98 that receive and communicate information externally toand from a user. For example, user input and output devices 98 mayinclude speakers, a microphone, a display, user input keys, and thelike. A user device interface 100 may be provided to receive user inputsignals 102 and transmit user output signals 104 to the user input andoutput devices 98. The user input signals 102 and user output signals104 may include any type of information received or presented to a userby mobile user device 8. For example, the transceiver 10 may be utilizedin mobile user device 8 that have 3G and 4 G communication capabilitiesand thus user input signals 102 and user output signals 104 may includeany type information provided by any 3G and 4G service.

Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 1A, FIG. 1A illustrates one embodiment ofthe coupler 42. The coupler 42 has a first coupler port 105, a secondcoupler port 106, a third coupler port 107, and a fourth coupler port108. The first coupler port 105 is connected to the transmissionamplification circuit 40 and receives the transmission signal 26 afterbeing up converted by the transmitter circuit 18 into the physicaluplink channel. Thus, the coupler 42 measures the forward power of thetransmission signal 26 after amplification and within the physicaluplink channel. The second coupler port 106 is connected to the secondmultiplexer port 32 of the multiplexer 16 so that the transmissionsignal 26 may be sent to the antenna 12 for transmission to a basestation. To generate the transmit feedback signal 44, the second couplerport 106 is magnetically coupled to the third coupler port 107 therebyinducing a current in the third coupler port 107. In the illustratedembodiment, this current is the transmit feedback signal 44.Consequently, the signal level of the transmit feedback signal 44 isrelated to the current power level, in this case the forward powerlevel, of the transmission signal 26. In this manner, the current powerlevel of the transmission signal 26 may be detected. The fourth couplerport 108 may be isolated from the first coupler port 105, second couplerport 106, and the third coupler port 107.

Referring now to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, FIG. 2 illustrates the components ofthe transceiver 10 from FIG. 1 that form a transceiver power controlsystem 110 in accordance with this disclosure. The transceiver powercontrol system 110 is operable to control the current power level of thetransmission signal 26 and the current power level of the receive signal28. The transceiver power control system 110 may include power controlsystem software instructions 111 stored on the local memory 84, whichwhen executed by the DSP 82 provide a transceiver power control softwaremodule that implements various functions of the transceiver powercontrol system 110. Note that the transceiver power control softwaremodule may be mutually exclusive of the other software modulesimplemented by the DSP 82 or may be integrated or partially integratedwith other software modules. The local memory 84 may also store powercontrol parameters 112 that are executed by the DSP 82 to provide thetransceiver power control software module, as described in furtherdetail below. In the alternative, the power control system softwareinstructions 111 and power control parameter 112 of the transceiverpower control software module may also be stored on the local memory 88for execution by the microprocessor 86. Also, power control systemsoftware instructions 111 and power control parameter 112 may be storedon non-volatile memory devices 90, which may then be transferred to thelocal memory 84 and/or local memory 88. These power control systemsoftware instructions 111 and power control parameters 112 may haveinitially been received by the mobile user device 8, either through acommunication network or through from other type of externalnon-transitory computer-readable medium, such as a CD, flash memorydevice, floppy disk, hard drive, or the like.

The transceiver power control system 110 shown in FIG. 2 includes thefront end interface devices 92, the transmit power control device 45,the receive power control device 56, and the antenna tuner controldevice 68. The front end interface devices 92 may provide the receivesignal 28, the transmit feedback signal 44, and the receive feedbacksignal 66 as input signals for the transceiver power control softwaremodule. The transceiver power control software module of the transceiverpower control system 110 may also be operable to determine and generate,the transmission power control signal 46, the receive power controlsignal 62, and the antenna tuner control signal 80. In this manner, thetransceiver power control system 110 can control the first adjustablegain of the transmission amplification circuit 40, the second adjustablegain of the receiver amplification circuit 54, and the pass band of theantenna tuner 14 and thereby control the current power levels oftransmission signal 26 and the receive signal 28 within the transceiver10.

Referring now to FIG. 1 and FIG. 3, FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagramof a transceiver power control software module 114 in accordance withthis disclosure. The transceiver power control software module 114 mayinclude a power system initialization and synchronization softwaremodule (PSIS) 115 that provides initial power settings for the firstadjustable gain of the transmission amplification circuit 40 and thesecond adjustable gain of the receiver amplification circuit 54. ThePSIS 115 also allows the transceiver power control software module 114to synchronize with a base station. The transceiver power controlsoftware module 114 may also include a transmit power control softwaremodule 116, a receive power control software module 118, and an antennatuner software module 120. The transmit power control software module116 determines and generates the transmission power control signal 46 tocontrol the first adjustable gain of the transmission amplificationcircuit 40. The receive power control software module 118 generates thereceive gain control signal 58 to control the second adjustable gain ofthe receiver amplification circuit 54. Finally, the antenna tunersoftware module 120 generates the antenna tuner control signal 80 tocontrol the pass band of the antenna tuner 14.

FIGS. 2 and 3 illustrate the transceiver power control system 110 as acombination of a parallel transmission power control system thatincludes the transmit power control software module 116 and the transmitpower control device 45, a parallel receive power control system thatincludes the receive power control software module 118 and the receivepower control device 56, and a parallel antenna tuner control systemhaving the antenna tuner software module 120 and the antenna tunercontrol device 68. The parallel transmission power control system,receive power control system, and antenna tuner control system togethermay communicate with one another and in combination provide thetransceiver power control system 110.

In alternative embodiments of the transceiver power control system 110,some or all of the components of the transmission power control system,receive power control system, and antenna tuner control system may beintegrated or at least partially integrated with one another. Forexample, the transmit power control software module 116, the receivepower control software module 118, and the antenna tuner software module120 may not be distinct software modules but instead may be formed or bepart of an integrated software module that as a whole provides thetransmit power control software module 116, the receive power controlsoftware module 118, and the antenna tuner software module 120.Similarly, the transmit power control device 45, the receive powercontrol device 56, and the antenna tuner control device 68 are notnecessarily parallel devices and may be provided as part of anintegrated power control device. In yet another alternative, thetransceiver power control system 110 may only include the transmissionpower control system, the receiver power control system, the antennatuner control system, or some combination of one or two out of thethree. In addition, the transceiver power control system 110 may beformed within or as part of another power control system in the mobileuser device 8. In still yet another embodiment, the functionality of thetransmit power control software module 116, the receive power controlsoftware module 118, and/or the antenna tuner software module 120 may beprovided from one or more hardwired hardware circuits. These and otheralternatives of the transceiver power control system 110 would beapparent to one of ordinary skill in the art in light of this disclosureand are considered within the scope of this disclosure.

FIG. 4 illustrates one embodiment of a communication system 122 for amobile user device 8, in this case a cell phone, having a transceiver 10with the transceiver power control system 110 as described above in FIG.1-3. In the communication system 122, the mobile user device 8communicates with a base station 126. For example, the base station 126may be an eNodeB base station that provides 3G and/or 4G services. Theterm “uplink” refers to a direction of communication from the mobileuser device 8 to the base station 126. In contrast, the term “downlink”refers to a direction of communication from the base station 126 to themobile user device 8. The transmission signal 26 is thus an uplinksignal since the transmission signal 26 is transmitted from the mobileuser device 8 to the base station 126. In contrast, the receive signal28 is a downlink signal since the receive signal 28 is transmitted fromthe base station 126 to the mobile user device 8.

The transmission signal 26 is provided with the physical uplink channelto the base station 126. The physical uplink channel is defined by atransmission frequency. The transmission signal 26 transmitted withinthe physical uplink channel from the mobile user device 8 to the basestation 126. As discussed above, the physical uplink channel may also beassociated with a scrambling code, channel code, start and stop time,phase (0 or

$\frac{\pi}{2}$radians for in-phase and quadrature phase signals received separately),a specific orthogonal signature sequence, and/or the like. The physicaluplink channel may thus be utilized to transmit information for one ormore 3G or 4G services to the base station 126. Various other uplinktransmission signals 124 may be transmitted from the mobile user device8 within different physical uplink channels, each being defined by adifferent transmission frequency.

Similarly, the receive signal 28 is transmitted via a physical downlinkchannel to the base station 126. The physical downlink channel isdefined by a receive frequency. The receive signal 28 is transmittedwithin the physical downlink channel from the mobile user device 8 tothe base station 126. As discussed above, the physical downlink channelmay also be associated with a scrambling code, channel code, start andstop time, phase (0 or

$\frac{\pi}{2}$radians for in-phase and quadrature phase signals received separately),a specific orthogonal signature sequence, and/or the like. The physicaldownlink channel may thus be utilized to transmit information for one ormore 3G or 4G services to the mobile device 8. Various other downlinkreceive signals 127 may be transmitted from the base station 126 viadifferent physical downlink channels.

The specifications for the format of the transmission signal 26 and thereceive signal 28 may be defined by the specifications of the physicaluplink channel and the physical downlink channel. The physical uplinkchannel and the physical downlink channel may be included as part of atransport channel for one or more 3G or 4G services. Thus, the physicaluplink channel and physical downlink channel may have specificationsthat allow the transport channel to provide a particular 3G or 4Gservice.

Referring now to FIG. 1 and FIG. 5, FIG. 5 illustrates one embodiment ofa data element of the transmission signal 26 transmitted within thephysical uplink channel. The transmission signal 26 has a format thatfollows the specifications of the physical uplink channel. In this case,the physical uplink channel is an uplink dedicated physical controlchannel (UDPCCH). The data element shown in FIG. 5 may be referred to asa slot 128, which is part of a larger data element of the transmissionsignal 26 that may be referred to as a data frame 130. The data frame130 includes fifteen (15) slots 128 and may be 40960 chips in length andhave a time period of approximately 10 microseconds. A stream of dataframes 130 may be transmitted by the transmission signal 26 inaccordance to the timing and/or encoding specifications of the physicaluplink channel. Accordingly, these slots 128 may be 2560 chips in lengthand have a time period of approximately

$\frac{10}{16}$microseconds. These slots 128 may be grouped into other data elementssuch as sub-frames 132. In this case, the sub-frame 132 has a length andtime period of five (5) slots 128. Each slot 128 includes data fields133 carrying information, in this case control information.

One of these data fields 133 is a RPC field 135 that includes receivepower control (RPC) information related to adjusting a current powerlevel of the receive signal 28 to a first desired power level. The RPCfield 135 may include direction information 135A defining a direction ofpower change, power step information 135B defining a magnitude of powerchange, and current power information 135C indicating the current powerlevel of the receive signal 28.

For example, the direction information 135A may be one (1) if thecurrent power level of the receive signal 28 is to be increased and zero(0) if the current power level of the receive signal 28 is to bedecreased. Thus, the RPC information has a RPC command when the RPCinformation indicates a change in the current power level. The RPC field135 may be provided in a specific configuration if there is no change inthe current power level and thus has no RPC command for a currentreceive power adjustment time period. The RPC field 135 may be providedwith certain bits in a particular configuration if there is no RPCcommand. In the alternative, the direction information 135A may benegative one (−1) if the current power level of the receive signal 28 isto be decreased, positive one (+1) if the current power level of thereceive signal 28 is to be increased. Thus, the direction information135A indicates that there is a RPC command when the directioninformation 135A is either a negative one (−1) or a positive one (+1).The direction information may be zero (0) if the current power level ofthe receive signal 28 is to remain unchanged and thus indicates thatthere is no RPC command. Next, the power step information 135B may beany type of power step value, such as, 0.5 dB, 1 dB, 1.5 dB, or 2 dB.The current power information 135C may be a measurement of the currentpower level of the receive signal 28 either from the receive signal 28itself or from the receive feedback signal 66. The current powerinformation 135C may include parameters such as receive signal strengthindicator (RSSI), received signal channel power (RSCP), or the like,which are based on the signal level of the receive signal 28 or thereceive feedback signal 66.

The RPC information may be transmitted (shown in FIG. 4) to requestincreases or decreases to the current power level of the receive signal28 by the base station 126. As explained in further detail below, RPCinformation may also be used internally by the transceiver 10 of themobile user device 8 to adjust the current power level of the receivesignal 28. FIG. 5 also shows a slot 136 of another uplink transmissionsignal 137 transmitted along another physical uplink channel, which inthis case is an uplink dedicated physical data channel (UDPDCH). Theslot 136 is associated with one of the slots 128 and is for datatransmission. Accordingly, the UDPCCH is utilized to transmit uplinkcontrol information and the UDPDCH is utilized to transmit uplink datafor a particular transport channel. While the physical uplink channel isdescribed as UDPCCH, the physical uplink channel may be any type ofuplink physical channel including the UDPDCH. In addition, the physicaluplink channel may be an uplink enhanced dedicated physical controlchannel (UE-DPCCH), an uplink common control channel (UCCCH), an uplinkhigh speed dedicated physical control channel (UHS-DPCCH), an uplinkphysical random access channel (UPRACH), or any data channel associatedwith these channels, and the like.

Referring now to FIG. 1 and FIG. 6, FIG. 6 shows a data element of thereceive signal 28 transmitted within the physical downlink channel. Inthis case, the physical downlink channel is a downlink dedicatedphysical channel (DDPCH). The receive signal 28 has a format thatfollows the specifications of the physical uplink channel. The dataelement may be referred to as a slot 138, which is part of a larger dataelement of the receive signal 28 that may be referred to as a data frame140. The data frame 140 includes fifteen (15) of the slots 138 and maybe 40960 chips in length and have a time period of approximately 10microseconds. Accordingly, these slots 138 may be 2560 chips in lengthand have a time period of approximately

$\frac{10}{16}$microseconds. These slots 138 may be grouped into other data elementssuch as sub-frames 142. In this case, the sub-frame 142 has a length andtime period of three (3) slots 138. Each slot 138 includes data fields144 carrying different types of information, in this case both controlinformation and data. One of these data fields 144 is a TPC field 145that includes transmit power control (TPC) information. TPC informationmay be sent by the base station 126 to the mobile user device 8 torequest changes in the current power level of the transmission signal 26by the mobile user device 8. The TPC field 145 may include TPCinformation such as direction information 145A defining a direction ofpower change and power step information 145B defining a magnitude ofpower change. Current power information indicating the current powerlevel of the transmission signal 26 as measured from the base station126 (shown in FIG. 4) may also be included.

For example, the direction information 145A may be one (1) if thecurrent power level of the transmission signal 26 is to be increased andzero (0) if the current power level of the transmission signal 26 is tobe decreased. Thus, the TPC information has a TPC command when the TPCinformation indicates a change in the current power level. The TPC field145 may be provided in a specific configuration if there is no change inthe current power level and thus has no TPC command for a particulartransmit power adjustment time period or the TPC field 145 may beprovided with certain bits in a particular configuration if there is noTPC command. In the alternative, the direction information 145A may benegative one (−1) if the current power level of the transmission signal26 is to be decreased, positive one (+1) if the current power level ofthe transmission signal 26 is to be increased. Thus, the directioninformation 145A indicates that there is a TPC command when thedirection information 145A is either a negative one (−1) or a positiveone (+1). The direction information may be zero (0) if the current powerlevel of the transmission signal 26 is to remain unchanged and thusindicates that there is no TPC command. The power step information 145Bmay be any type of power step value, such as, 0.5 dB, 1 dB, 1.5 dB, or 2dB. In addition, other types of information may be included in the TPCinformation, such as parameters that the current power level of thetransmission signal 126 as measured by the base station 126.

The TPC information is transmitted from the base station 126 (shown inFIG. 4) to the mobile user device 8 (shown in FIG. 4) so that the mobileuser device 8 can increase or decrease the current power level of thetransmission signal 26 to a first desired power level. While thephysical downlink channel for this embodiment is the DDPCH, any physicaldownlink channel that provides TPC information or any physical downlinkchannel capable of being configured to provide TPC information may beutilized. Thus, the physical downlink channel may also be a downlinkenhanced dedicated physical channel DE-DPCH), a downlink fractionaldedicated physical channel (DF-DPCH), a downlink enhanced dedicatedrelative grant channel (DE-RGCH), a downlink enhanced hybrid indicatorchannel (DE-HICH), a downlink physical random access channel (DDPRACH),a downlink primary common control physical channel (DP-CCPCH), adownlink secondary common control physical channel (DS-CCPCH), and adownlink high speed shared control physical channel (DHS-DSCH), or thelike.

Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 5-7, FIG. 7 illustrates a transmit powercontrol process 148 implemented by the transmit power control softwaremodule 116 shown in FIG. 3. Note that the diagram in FIG. 7 is simplyone embodiment of the transmit power control software module 116 and thesteps described are not necessarily to be performed in any particularorder and different or alternate steps may be performed in accordance tothe operating mode of the mobile user device 8. Furthermore, thetransmit power control software module 116 described in FIG. 7 assumesthat the mobile user device 8 has been synchronized with the basestation and is operating in the normal mode. If synchronization has notyet been achieved or upon initially synchronizing the mobile user device8 to the base station, different or alternate steps that includedifferent calculations utilizing pilot bits and the like may be needed.Also, note that the steps described in FIG. 7 may be performed for eachtransmit power adjustment time period, which in this case is defined andsynchronized in accordance with the slot 128 of the transmission signal26. Thus, the transmit power adjustment time period may be defined by atime period of the slot 128 and thus may be the time period of the slot128 itself (such as

$\frac{10}{16}$microseconds) or some fraction of the time period for the slot 128 (suchas

$\frac{5}{16}$microseconds). In the alternative, if the mobile user device 8 is in adifferent operating mode, the transmit power adjustment time period maygroup the slots 128 into the sub-frames 132, and the transmit poweradjustment time period may be defined by the time period associated withthe sub-frames 132. The transmit power adjustment time period may alsobe defined by the time period of the data frame 130 or in yet anotheralternative, the transmit power adjustment time period may be defined byone of the time periods of the data elements described in FIG. 6 for thereceive signal 28. Thus, the transmit power adjustment time period maybe defined by either the physical uplink channel or the physicaldownlink channel.

The transmit power control software module 116 operates to control thefirst adjustable gain of the transmission amplification circuit 40 sothat the current power level of the transmission signal 26 and thus thephysical uplink channel is adjusted to a first desired transmissionpower level. The process begins by receiving TPC information in thereceive signal 28 transmitted within the physical downlink channel fromthe base station 126 (step 150). Also, parameters TX_MIN and TX_MAX arereceived by the transmit power control software module 116 (step 152).Parameters TX_MIN and TX_MAX do not have to be received for eachtransmit power adjustment time period and may simply be stored as powercontrol parameters in local memory 84. The parameters TX_MIN and TX_MAXindicate the minimum and maximum power levels, respectively, for thetransmission signal 26 that may be provided by the transmission signal26.

Also received is a parameter TX_POW which indicates the current powerlevel of the transmission signal 26 and is based on the signal level ofthe transmit feedback signal 44 (step 154). Thus the transmit feedbacksignal 44 allows the transmit power control software module 116 todetect the current power level of the transmission signal 26. Next, theTPC information is extracted from one of the slots 138 of the receivesignal 28 which has been associated with the one of the slots 128 of thetransmission signal 26 being processed during the current transmit poweradjustment time period (step 156). If the TPC information indicates thatthere is no TPC command then the transmit power control software module116 may end for the current transmit power adjustment time period (step158). On the other hand, if the TPC information does include a TPCcommand, then the transmit power control module determines if thedirection information is requesting an increase or a decrease in thecurrent power level of the transmission signal 26 (step 160). If thedirection information requests a decrease in the current power level ofthe transmission signal 26, and thus is for example a zero (0), then thetransmit power control software module 116 compares the parameter TX_POWwith TX_MIN to determine if the current power level of the transmissionsignal 26 is at the minimum power level (step 161). If TX_POW is equalto or less than TX_MIN, this indicates that the current power level ofthe transmission signal 26 cannot be lowered any more by the firstadjustable gain of the transmission amplification circuit 40 and thetransmit power control software module 116 ends by sending an enablingsignal to enable changes by the antenna tuner 14 and by transmitting theTPC information to the antenna tuner control system (step 162). If thedirection information requests an increase in the current power level ofthe transmission signal 26, and thus is for example a one (1), then thetransmit power control software module 116 compares the parameter TX_POWwith TX_MAX to determine if the current power level of the transmissionsignal 26 is at the maximum power level (step 163). If TX_POW is equalto or greater than TX_MAX, this indicates that the current power levelof the transmission signal 26 cannot be raised any more by the firstadjustable gain of the transmission amplification circuit 40 and thetransmit power control software module 116 ends by sending an enablingsignal to enable changes by the antenna tuner 14 and by transmitting theTPC information to the antenna tuner control system (step 162).

If TX_POW indicates that the current power level of the transmissionsignal 26 is within the power limits that can be provided by the firstadjustable gain of the transmission amplification circuit 40, then thetransmit power control software module 116 determines a value of thefirst desired transmission power level for the transmission signal 26based on the TPC information (step 164). For example, if the transmitpower adjustment time period is synchronized with each of the slots 128(shown in FIG. 5), then the first desired transmission power level maybe expressed as:P _(DesiredT)(k)=P _(TX) _(—) _(POW)(k)+Δstep(k)*Dir(k)

Where P_(DesiredT) (k) is the first desired transmission power level,P_(TX) _(—) _(POW) (k) is the current power level of the transmissionsignal 26 as indicated by TX_POW, Δstep (k) is the magnitude of powerchange indicated by the power step information, Dir(k) is the directionof the power change indicated by the direction information, and k is aninteger indicating a particular slot 128. If in the alternative themobile user device is in a soft handover mode, as it transitions frombeing synchronized with one base station to another base station, thenthe transmit power control software module 116 must deal with TPCinformation from more than one base station. Soft symbol decisions ofthe TPC information from each of the different base stations may becombined to derive a combined TPC command.

In the alternative, other algorithms may be utilized which aresynchronized with sub-frames 132 or data frames 130. In this case, thetransmit power control system module may select the power stepinformation for one of the slots 132 in the sub-frame 132 or data frame130 or combine the power step information by averaging and the like. Inaddition, a hard decision based on the direction information of each,some, or all of the slots 128 in the sub-frame 132 or data frame 130 maybe utilized to determine a direction of change. Finally to calculateP_(DesiredT) (k) other parameters may be added or subtracted to theequation indicated above for different operating modes. For example, ifthe mobile user device is operating in a compressed mode then anadditional parameter may be added to P_(DesiredT) (k) in accordance withpilot information. These and other calculations of the first desiredtransmission power level and parameters for calculating the firstdesired transmission power level would be apparent to one of ordinaryskill in the art in light of this disclosure and are considered withinthe scope of the disclosure.

Upon calculating the first desired transmission power level of thetransmission signal 26, the transmit power control software module 116determines TX_Control which indicates a value or values to betransmitted on the transmission power control signal 46, and thetransmit power control software module 116 generates the transmissionpower control signal 46 accordingly (step 166). The value or valuestransmitted on the transmission power control signal 46 may be relatedto a gain level of the first adjustable gain of the transmissionamplification circuit 40 to provide the first adjustable gain at thefirst desired transmission power level. In this manner, the transmissionpower control signal 46 may be transmitted to the transmit power controldevice 45 to adjusts the first adjustable gain of the transmissionamplification circuit 40 and reduce a difference between the currentpower level of the transmission signal 26 and the first desiredtransmission power level of the transmission signal 26.

Ideally, this adjustment of the first adjustable gain eliminates thedifference between the current power level of the transmission signal 26and the first desired transmission power level but this may not be thecase. However, the coupler 42 is connected within the transmittercircuit 18 and thus the transmit power control software module 116 candetect the forward power of the transmission signal 26 caused by theadjustment of the first adjustable gain. Accordingly, the transmit powercontrol software module 116 again receives the parameter TX_POW whichnow indicates the new current power level of the transmission signal 26based on the signal level of the transmit feedback signal 44 (step 168).The new TX_POW is compared to the first desired transmission power levelof the transmission signal 26 (step 170). If the comparison indicatesthat the current power level is not equal to the first desiredtransmission power level, then the difference between the first desiredtransmission power level and the current power level, while reduced hasnot been eliminated. Accordingly, steps 166-170 are repeatedcontinuously so long as the difference between the first desiredtransmission power level and the current power level has not beeneliminated or until the time that the current transmit power adjustmenttime period ends. Consequently, the power loop for the transmissionsignal 26 can be closed internally without requiring a base station todetermine if the changes in forward power were made accurately by thetransceiver 10.

For the steps 150-162 described in FIG. 7, the physical uplink channelis the UDPCCH, which is a type of physical uplink logical channel. Ifthe mobile user device 8 is not in the normal mode, other channels maybe utilized such as the UCCCH with alternate algorithms. Also, asdiscussed above, the transceiver 10 may generate and transmit aplurality of transmission signals within different physical uplinkchannels on the antenna 12. For example, transmission signals may betransmitted between physical uplink channels including, but not limitedto, a UDPDCH, UCCCH, UE-DPCCH, a UHS-DPCCH, an UPRACH, other types ofphysical uplink logical channels or any physical uplink data channelassociated with these channels, and the like. The transmitter circuit 18may include a plurality of parallel transmitter chains or partiallyparallel transmitter chains to up convert the transmission signals intotheir respective physical uplink channels. The multiplexer 16, the firstmultiplexer port 30 and/or the second multiplexer port 32 may include aswitch or switches that coordinate the traffic among all of thetransmission signals.

Accordingly, the parallel or partially parallel transmitter chains mayeach have a transmission amplification circuit with an adjustable gainand each of these may be controlled by other transmission power controlsignals generated by the DSP and associated with the respectiveamplification circuit the particular physical uplink channels. For eachof the transmitter chains, the transmit power control software module116 may have parallel processes similar to those described in steps150-170 of FIG. 7 to control the current power level of the differenttransmission signals. However, providing a parallel process for eachtransmission chain takes up processing resources and presents computinginefficiencies. Thus, instead of providing a parallel process for eachphysical uplink channel, relationships may be determined between thefirst adjustable gain of the transmission amplification circuit 40 andthe adjustable gains for the transmission amplification circuitsassociated with the other transmission signals and physical uplinkchannels. The transmit power control software module 116 may adjust theadjustable gains of the transmission amplification circuits in the otherphysical uplink channels based on the relationships (step 171).

For example, the nominal power relation between the first adjustablegain of the transmission amplification circuit 40 and the adjustablegain of the amplification circuit for the transmitter chain of theUDPDCH may be expressed as:

$A = \frac{\beta_{UDPCCH}}{\beta_{UDPDCH}}$

Where β_(UDPCCH) represents the first adjustable gain, β_(UDPDCH)represents the adjustable gain of the amplification circuit for theUDPDCH, and the parameter A is a proportion between β_(UDPCCH) andβ_(UDPDCH). This relationship in this case is linear and assumes thatthe transceiver 10 is operating in a normal mode. In other modes, forexample when operating in the compressed mode, the relationship may beadjusted in accordance to various factors such as parameters calculatedbased on pilot bits. The relationship between the UDPCCH and otherchannels may be various and have different types of linear or nonlinearrelationships. Similarly, if in alternative embodiments, steps 150-171are utilized with a channel other than the UDPCCH, the relationshipsbetween this other channel and additional physical uplink channels mayhave different linear or nonlinear relationships. One of ordinary skillin the art would know how to determine these relationships in light ofthis disclosure.

After the current power level of the physical uplink channels have beenadjusted as discussed above in step 171, the transmit power controlsoftware module 116 ends the process for the particular slot 128 (step172). The transceiver 10 may then begin processing the next slot 128that is associated with the TPC information of the next slot 138 of thereceive signal 28. The TPC information of the next slot 138 may includeTPC information for adjusting the current power level of thetransmission signal 26 to a second desired transmission power level.Then steps 150, 154-172 may be repeated during the transmit poweradjustment time period of the next slot 128. The subsequent slots 128may each be associated with the TPC information of one of the subsequentslots 138 in the receive signal 28. This TPC information of thesubsequent slot 138 may be for adjusting the current power level toanother desired transmission power levels, and the transmit powercontrol process 148 may be repeated continuously so long as theinformation stream of the transmission signal 26 and the receive signal28 are maintained between the mobile user device 8 and the base station.

Referring now to FIGS. 1, 5, 6, and 8, FIG. 8 illustrates a diagram ofsteps executed by a RCP information generation process 173 of thereceive power control software module 118, which generates RCPinformation. Note that the diagram in FIG. 8 is simply one embodimentand the steps described are not necessarily to be performed in anyparticular order and different or alternate steps may be performed inaccordance to the operating mode of the mobile user device 8.Furthermore, the receive power control software module 118 described inFIG. 8 assumes that the mobile user device 8 has been synchronized withthe base station and is operating in the normal mode. If synchronizationhas not yet been achieved or upon initially synchronizing the mobileuser device 8 to the base station, different or alternate steps thatinclude different calculations utilizing pilot bits and the like may beneeded. Also, note that the steps described in FIG. 8 may be performedfor each receive power adjustment time period, which in this case isdefined and synchronized in accordance with the slot 128 (shown in FIG.5) of the transmission signal 26. Thus, the receive power adjustmenttime period may be defined by a time period of the slot 128 and thus maybe the time period of the slot 128 itself (such as

$\frac{10}{16}$microseconds) or some traction of the time period for the slot 128. Inthe alternative, for example if the mobile user device 8 is in analternate operating mode, the receive power adjustment time period maygroup the slots 128 into the sub-frames 132 (shown in FIG. 5), and thereceive power adjustment time period may be defined by the time periodassociated with the sub-frames 132. Accordingly, the receive poweradjustment time period may be the same as and synchronized with thetransmit power adjustment time period. Alternatively, the receive poweradjustment time period may also be defined by the time period of thedata frame 130 (shown in FIG. 5) or in yet another alternative, thereceive power adjustment time period may be defined by one of the timeperiods of the data elements described in FIG. 6 for the receive signal28. Thus, the receive power adjustment time period may be defined byeither the physical uplink channel or the physical downlink channel.

The RCP information generation process 173 begins by receiving aparameter (RX_SNIR_TARGET) indicating a target receive signal to noiseratio for the receive signal 28 (step 174). This RX_SNIR_TARGET may bestored as one of the power control parameters in the local memory 84 ormay be determined and provided by an ancillary or external process ofthe transceiver 10. RX_SNIR_TARGET may or may not be received for eachreceive power adjustment time period. Note that the receive powercontrol software module 118 may require the execution of several RPCcommands to be able to reach the RX_SNIR_TARGET and RX_SNIR_TARGET mayalso be based on the particular operation mode of the mobile user device8.

Next, power step information indicating a desired power change step isreceived (step 176). The power step information may also be stored asone of the power control parameters in local memory 84 or may bedetermined and provided by an ancillary or external process of thetransceiver 10. The power step information may or may not be receivedfor each receive power adjustment time period. Also, the receive powercontrol software module 118 receives a parameter, RX_RSSI, whichindicates the current power level of the receive signal 28 (step 178).RX_RSSI is a measurement of the RSSI of the receive signal 28. In thealternative, RSCP along with any other value that indicates the currentpower level of the receive signal 28 may be utilized. RX_RSSI may bedetermined by the DSP 82 by processing the receive signal 28 oralternatively based on the signal level of the receive feedback signal66.

Next, the receive power control software module 118 determines aparameter RX_SNIR from RX_RSSI, which indicates the current receivesignal to noise ratio of the receive signal 28 (step 180). The receivepower control software module 118 compares RX_SNIR_TARGET and RX_SNIR todetermine if the current receive signal to noise ration of the receivesignal 28 is at the desired level (step 182). If the signal to noiseratio is less than required, then the receive power control softwaremodule 118 generates RPC information with directional informationrequesting an increase of the current power level of the receive signal28, power step information indicating a desired magnitude of change, andRX_RSSI (step 184). On the other hand, if the current signal to noiseratio is greater than required, then the receive power control softwaremodule 118 generates RPC information with directional informationrequesting a decrease of the current power level of the receive signal28, the power step information, and RX_RSSI (step 186). In thealternative, if the current signal to noise ratio is greater thanrequired, the RPC information may be provided in a manner that indicatesthat there is no RPC command for the receive power control poweradjustment time period. If the RX_SNIR_TARGER and RX_SNIR aresubstantially equal, the current power level of the receive signal 28 isto remain the same and the RPC information indicates that there is noRPC command (step 187).

The RPC information may be included in the transmission signal 26 (asshown in FIG. 5) to request an adjustment to the current power level ofthe receive signal 28 from the base station. In addition, the RPCinformation may be utilized internally to adjust the current power levelof the receive signal 28. If the RPC command requested by the RPCinformation can be carried out internally by the receive power controlsoftware module 118, the RPC commands may not be sent to the basestation but rather RPC information may be sent to the base stationindicating that there is no RPC command.

Referring now to FIG. 1 and FIGS. 5, 6, and 9, FIG. 9 illustrates adiagram of steps of a receive power control process 188 executed by thereceive power control software module 118. During the receive powercontrol process 188, the receive power control software module 118operates to control the second adjustable gain of the receiveramplification circuit 54 so that the current power level of the receivesignal 28 is adjusted to a first desired receive power level. Thereceive power control process 188 may utilize the RPC informationgenerated as discussed above in FIG. 8. Initially, parameters RX_MIN andRX_MAX are received by the receive power control software module 118(step 190). Parameters RX_MIN and RX_MAX do not have to be received foreach receive power adjustment time period and may simply be stored aspower control parameters in local memory 84 or determined and providedby an ancillary or external process. The parameters RX_MIN and RX_MAXindicate the minimum and maximum power levels, respectively, for thereceive signal 28 that may be provided by the receiver amplificationcircuit 54 for the receive signal 28.

Next, the RPC information is extracted (step 192). If the RPCinformation indicates that there is no RPC command then the receivepower control software module 118 may end for the receive poweradjustment time period (step 194). On the other hand, if the RPCinformation does include a RPC command, then the transmit power controlmodule determines if the direction information is requesting an increaseor a decrease in the current power level of the receive signal 28 (step196). If the direction information requests a decrease in the currentpower level of the receive signal 28, and thus is for example a zero(0), then the receive power control software module 118 compares theparameter RX_RSSI with RX_MIN to determine if the current power level ofthe receive signal 28 is at the minimum power level (step 197). IfRX_RSSI is equal to or less than RX_MIN, this indicates that the currentpower level of the receive signal 28 cannot be lowered any more by thesecond adjustable gain of the receiver amplification circuit 54 and thereceive power control software module 118 ends by sending an enablingsignal to enable changes to the pass band of the antenna tuner and bytransmitting the RPC information to the antenna tuner control system(step 198). If the direction information requests an increase in thecurrent power level of the receive signal 28, and thus is for example aone (1), then the receive power control software module 118 compares theparameter RX_RSSI with RX_MAX to determine if the current power level ofthe receive signal 28 is at the maximum power level (step 199). IfRX_RSSI is equal to or greater than RX_MAX, this indicates that thecurrent power level of the receive signal 28 cannot be raised any moreby the second adjustable gain of the receiver amplification circuit 54and the receive power control software module 118 ends by sending anenabling signal to enable changes to the pass band of the antenna tuner14 and by transmitting the RPC information to the antenna tuner controlsystem (step 198).

If RX_RSSI indicates that the current power level of the receive signal28 is within the power limits that can be provided by the secondadjustable gain of the receiver amplification circuit 54, then thereceive power control software module 118 determines a value of thefirst desired receive power level for the receive signal 28 based on theRPC information (step 200). For example, if the receive power adjustmenttime period is synchronized with each of the slots 128, (shown in FIG.5) then the first desired receive power level may be expressed as:P _(DesiredR)(k)=PRX _(—) RSSI(k)+Δstep(k)*Dir(k)

Where P_(DesiredR) (k) is the first desired receive power level,PRX_RSSI (k) is the current power level of the receive signal 28 asindicated by RX_RSSI, Δstep (k) is the magnitude of power changeindicated by the power step information, Dir(k) is the direction of thepower change indicated by the direction information, and k is an integerindicating a particular slot 128. If the mobile user device is not inthe normal mode, other algorithms may be synchronized with sub-frames132 or even data frames 130. In this case, the transmit power controlsystem module may select the power step information for one of the slots128 in the sub-frame 132 or data frame 130 or combine the power stepinformation by averaging and the like and perform a hard decision basedon the direction information of each or some of the slots 128 in thesub-frame 132 or data frame 130 to determine a combined direction ofchange. Finally to calculate P_(DesiredR) (k) other parameters may beadded or subtracted. For example, if the mobile user device is operatingin a compressed mode then an additional parameter may be added to theequation such as PSIR(k) which may be a power adjustment based onvariations in RX_SNIR_TARGET. Another parameter than may be calculatedand added to the above mentioned equation is P_(bal) (k) the powers ofall channels to a common reference power, as provided by, for example, acommon pilot channel (CPICH). These and other calculations of the firstdesired receive power level and parameters for calculating the firstdesired receive power level would be apparent to one of ordinary skillin the art in light of this disclosure and are considered within thescope of the disclosure.

Upon calculating the first desired receive power level of the receivesignal 28, the receive power control software module 118 determines aparameter RX_Control which indicates a signal level of the receive powercontrol signal 62 for the receive power control device 56 and generatethis receive power control signal 62 accordingly (step 202). The receivepower control signal 62 may be transmitted to the receive power controldevice 56 which adjusts the second adjustable gain of the receiveramplification circuit 54 to reduce a difference between the currentpower level of the receive signal 28 and the first desired receive powerlevel of the receive signal 28.

Ideally, this adjustment of the second adjustable gain eliminates thedifference between the current power level of the receive signal 28 andthe first desired receive power level but this may not be the case.Accordingly, the receive power control software module 118 againreceives the parameter RX_RSSI which now indicates the new current powerlevel of the receive signal 28 based on the signal level of the eitherthe receive signal 28 or the receive feedback signal 66 (step 204). Thenew RX_RSSI is compared to the first desired receive power level of thereceive signal 28 (step 206). If the comparison indicates that thecurrent power level is not equal to the first desired receive powerlevel, then the difference between the first desired receive power leveland the current power level, while reduced has not been eliminated.Accordingly, steps 202-206 are repeated continuously so long as thedifference between the first desired receive power level and the currentpower level has not been eliminated or until the time that the currentreceive power adjustment time period ends.

For the steps 190-206 described in FIG. 9, the receive signal 28 hasbeen received by the antenna 12 within the DDPCH and thus formatted inaccordance with the specifications of the DDPCH. However, as discussedabove, the transceiver 10 may receive a plurality of receive signalswithin different physical downlink channels on the antenna 12. Forexample, receive signals may be received within physical downlinkchannels including, but not limited to, a DE-DPCH, a DF-DPCH, a DE-RGCH,a DE-HICH, a DDPRACH, a DP-CCPCH, a DS-CCPCH, a DHS-DSCH, or the like.

The receiver circuit 20 may include a plurality of parallel or partiallyparallel receiver chains similar to the receiver chain of the receivercircuit 20 described in FIG. 1 to down convert each of the receivesignals out of their respective physical downlink channels. Themultiplexer 16, the first multiplexer port 30, and the third multiplexerport 34 may include a switch or switches that coordinate the trafficamong all of these receive signals. The receiver circuit may have areceiver amplification circuit with an adjustable gain for each of thesereceiver chains and each of these may be controlled by the receiverpower control signal associated with the receiver chain of a respectivephysical downlink channel. Thus, the receive power control softwaremodule 118 may have parallel processes similar to those described in andsteps 174-186 and steps 190-206 of FIG. 9 for each or some of thereceive signals. However, each parallel process takes up processingresources and presents inefficiencies. Instead, the factor P_(bal)(k)may be provided which balances the various physical downlink channels toa common reference power. The receive power control software module 118may provide P_(bal)(k) for the other physical downlink channels (step208). The adjustable gains of the amplification circuits may be adjustedaccordingly. One of ordinary skill in the art would know how todetermine these P_(bal)(k) in light of this disclosure.

After the physical uplink channels have been adjusted as discussed abovefor step 208, the receive power control software module 118 ends theprocess for the particular slot 128 (step 209). The transceiver 10 maythen begin processing the next slot 128. In this case, the receive powercontrol process 188 may be repeated to determine if the signal to noiseratio of the receive signal 28 is at the desired RX_SNIR_Desired. If notor if the RX_SNIR_Desired has changed, RPC information may be generatedhaving RPC information for adjusting the current power level to a seconddesired receive power level. Then the receive power control process 188may be repeated during the receive power adjustment time period of thenext slot 128. Thus, the subsequent slots 128 may each be associatedwith the RPC information. The RCP information generation process 173 andreceive power control process 188 of FIGS. 8 and 9 may be repeatedcontinuously so long as the information stream of the transmissionsignal 26 and the receive signal 28 is maintained between the mobileuser device 8 and the base station.

Referring now to FIGS. 1, 10, FIG. 10 illustrates the S₁₁ response 210for one embodiment of the antenna tuner 14. The S₁₁ response 210 isdetermined by an impedance response of the antenna tuner 14. In thiscase, the S₁₁ response 210 indicates that the antenna tuner 14 providesa pass band 212. The pass band 212 has an intermediate frequency, f_(i),a first break frequency f_(B1) associated with a transmission frequency,f_(TX), and a second break frequency f_(B2) associated with a receivefrequency, f_(RX). Accordingly the pass band 212 of the antenna tuner 14has a bandwidth 214 having a value of approximately f_(B2)−f_(B1). Thisbandwidth 214 may be defined as the 3 dB bandwidth of the pass band 212,which may actually be slightly larger than f_(B2)−f_(B1). Theintermediate frequency, of the antenna tuner 14 may be any frequencybetween the first break frequency f_(B1) and the second break frequencyf_(B2), such as the center frequency of the pass band 212. Theintermediate frequency, f_(i), may also be associated with a resonantfrequency of the current impedance response of the antenna tuner 14.

A transmission frequency f_(TX), is the transmission frequency of thetransmission signal 26 and thus also the physical uplink channel. Thereceive frequency f_(RX), is the receive frequency of the receive signal28 and thus the physical downlink channel. Consequently, the pass band212 of the antenna tuner 14 may be utilized to allow communication of aphysical uplink channel and a physical downlink channel in a transportchannel. In this embodiment, the physical uplink channel is the UDPCCHand the physical downlink channel is the DDPDCH and thus the transportchannel may be a dedicated transport channel (DCH). As mentioned above,the transceiver 10 may transmit a plurality of transmission signals andreceive signals and the impedance response of the antenna tuner 14 maybe variable to adjust the pass band 212. For example, the antenna tuner14 may include various reactive elements, such as inductive elementsand/or capacitive elements having variable reactive impedance values.The antenna tuner control system may transpose the pass band 212 bycontrolling the variable reactive impedance values to place theintermediate frequency, f_(i), between a desired transmission frequency,such as the transmission frequency f_(TX), and a desired receivefrequency, such as the receive frequency f_(RX), thus shifting the passband 212 along the frequency spectrum. Furthermore, different transportchannels may have different offsets between the transmission frequencyand the receive frequency. Accordingly, the antenna tuner control systemcan also adjust the bandwidth 214.

Referring now to FIGS. 1, 10, and 11, FIG. 11 illustrates a pass bandadjustment process 216 executed by the antenna tuner software module 120of the antenna tuner control system. The antenna tuner software module120 may receive the transmission frequency of the physical uplinkchannel (step 218) and the receive frequency of the physical downlinkchannel (step 220). In the alternative, the antenna tuner softwaremodule 120 may simply receive the intermediate frequency and offsets tothe transmission frequency f_(TX) and receive frequency f_(RX).Additionally, information identifying or relating to the physical uplinkchannel and the physical downlink channel may be also be provided todetermine the transmission frequency f_(TX), receive frequency f_(RX),intermediate frequency f_(i) and/or offsets based on this information.

Next, the antenna tuner software module 120 may then determine theintermediate frequency, f_(i) of the pass band 212 (step 222) and alsothe required bandwidth 214 of the pass band 212 (step 224). The requiredbandwidth 214 may also be determined by calculating or receiving anoffset of the transmission frequency and receive frequency from theintermediate frequency f_(i). In the alternative, stored values for theintermediate frequency, f_(i) and the bandwidth 214 may be received bythe antenna tuner software module 120 and the antenna tuner softwaremodule 120 may access these stored values based on the identifiedphysical uplink channel and physical downlink channel.

The value of the intermediate frequency f_(i), bandwidth 214, and/oroffsets may be transmitted as data by the antenna tuner software module120 through the antenna tuner control signal 80 to the antenna tunercontrol device 68 (step 226). The antenna tuner control device 68 maythen control the variable impedance values of the inductive elementsand/or capacitive elements of the antenna tuner 14 to adjust theimpedance response accordingly. The first break frequency f_(B1) andsecond break frequency f_(B2) may be set as close as possible to thetransmission frequency f_(TX), and receive frequency f_(RX),respectively. This may be done to minimize the bandwidth 214 so as tomaintain the highest quality factor (Q-factor) possible. However,non-ideal circuit behavior in addition to practical accuracyconsiderations may require for there to be some buffer between the firstbreak frequency f_(B1) and the transmission frequency f_(TX) and secondbreak frequency f_(B2) and the receive frequency f_(RX).

Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 12, FIG. 12 illustrates the pass band 212degraded by the antenna tuner control system towards the physicaldownlink channel and thus towards the receive frequency f_(RX). Sincethe O-factor for the pass band 212 and the bandwidth 214 are inverselyproportional, the Q-factor may not be increased without potentiallyblocking the transmission frequency f_(TX) and second break frequencyf_(B2) and the receive frequency f_(RX). Thus, the antenna tuner controlsystem adjusts the impedance response so that the Q-factor towards thephysical downlink channel is sacrificed to increase the Q-factor towardsthe physical uplink channel, and accordingly towards the transmissionfrequency, f_(TX). In this case, the intermediate frequency, f_(i),shifts towards the transmission frequency, f_(TX). The antenna tunercontrol system may degrade the pass band towards the physical downlinkchannel to increase the current power level of the transmission signal26.

Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 13, FIG. 13 illustrates the pass band 212degraded by the antenna tuner control system towards the physical uplinkchannel and thus towards the transmission frequency f_(TX). In thiscase, the antenna tuner control system adjusts the impedance response sothat the Q-factor towards the physical uplink channel is sacrificed toincrease the Q-factor towards the physical downlink channel, andaccordingly towards the receive frequency, f_(RX). Thus, theintermediate frequency, f_(i), shifts towards the receive frequency,f_(RX). The antenna tuner control system may degrade the pass bandtowards the physical uplink channel to increase the current power levelof the receive signal 28.

Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 14, FIG. 14 illustrates a power controlprocess 228 of the antenna tuner software module 120. In thisembodiment, the power control process is initiated (step 230) if eitherthe transmit power control software module 116 or the receive powercontrol software module 118 have enabled the antenna tuner softwaremodule 120. As discussed above for FIG. 7, the transmit power controlsoftware module 116 may enable the antenna tuner software module 120 ifTX_POW is either above or below TX_MAX or TX_MIN. Similarly, in FIG. 9,the receive power control software module 118 may enable the antennatuner software module RX_RSSI is above or below RX_MAX and RX_MIN. Inthis case, the transmission amplification circuit 40 or the receiveramplification circuit 54 have reached their respective minimum ormaximum power limits and are unable to adjust the current power level ofthe transmission signal 26 or the current power level of the receivesignal 28 in accordance with the TPC command and/or the RPC command.Also, if only one of either the transmit power control software module116 and the receive power control software module 118 or neither thetransmit power control software module 116 or the receive power controlsoftware module 118 have enabled, then the current power levels of thefor the non-enabling software module(s) 116, 118 are held (step 231).

If the transmit power control software module 116 has enabled theantenna tuner software module 120, the antenna tuner software module 120receives the TPC information (step 232) and also the transmit feedbacksignal 44 (step 234). Based on the TPC information and the signal levelof the transmit feedback signal, the antenna tuner software module 120determines the first desired transmission power level (step 236).Similarly, if the receive power control software module 118 has enabledthe antenna tuner software module 120, the antenna tuner software module120 receives the RPC information (step 237) and also the receivefeedback signal 66 (step 238). Based on the RPC information and thesignal level of the receive feedback signal 66, the antenna tunersoftware module 120 determines the first desired receive power level(step 239). In the alternative, the antenna tuner software module 120may receive the receive signal 28 or utilize the RX_RSSI value, whichmay be within the RPC information to determine the first desired receivepower level.

If the transmit power control software module 116 has enabled theantenna tuner software module 120, then the antenna tuner softwaremodule 120 generates data indicating the required impedance response toreduce and ideally eliminate the difference between the current powerlevel of the transmission signal 26 and the first desired transmissionpower level (step 240). This data is sent through the antenna tunercontrol signal 80 (step 242) and the antenna tuner control device 68 maythen adjust the impedance response to degrade the pass band 212, asexplained above in FIGS. 12 and 13, based on antenna tuner controlsignal 80. For example, if the TPC information is a TPC commandrequiring an increase in the current power level of the transmissionsignal 26, then the transmission amplification circuit 40 has reachedthe maximum power level that may be provided by the first adjustablegain. Accordingly, the pass band 212 is adjusted as shown in FIG. 12,which increases the Q-factor at the physical uplink channel and thus thecurrent power level of the transmission signal 26.

If the receive power control software module 118 has enabled the antennatuner software module 120, then the antenna tuner software module 120generates data indicating the required impedance response to reduce andideally eliminate the difference between the current power level of thereceive signal 28 and the first desired receive power level (step 244).This data is sent through the antenna tuner control signal 80 (step 246)and the antenna tuner control device 68 may then adjust the impedanceresponse to degrade the pass band 212, as explained above in FIGS. 12and 13, based on antenna tuner control signal 80. For example, if theRPC information is a RPC command requiring an increase in the currentpower level of the receive signal 28, then the receiver amplificationcircuit 54 has reached the maximum power level that may be provided bythe second adjustable gain. Accordingly, the pass band 212 is adjustedas shown in FIG. 13, which increases the Q-factor at the physicaldownlink channel and thus the current power level of the receive signal28.

When both the transmit power control software module 116 and the receivepower control software module 118 have enabled the antenna tunersoftware module 120 (step 230), and both the TPC information and the RPCinformation are requesting changes in the power level in the samedirection, then determining the required impedance response (step 236and step 239) may require use of a metric to reduce the difference ofboth the current power level of the transmission signal 26 with thefirst desired transmission power level and the current power level ofthe receive signal 28 with the first desired receive power level. Forexample, if the TPC information and the RPC information both arerequesting increases in the current power levels of the transmissionsignal 26 and the receive signal 28, a metric may be utilized todetermine the manner in which to sacrifice the Q-factor, which complieswith the TPC commands and the RPC commands. Preferably, this metricshould be minimized if possible.

This metric may be conceptually expressed as:f _(T)(TPC information,TX_MAX)*W _(T)(TX _(—) POW)+f _(R)(RPCinformation,RX_MAX)*W _(R)(RX _(—) RSSI)

The function f_(T)(TPC information, TX_MAX) is a function that variesbased on TPC information and TX_MAX and W_(T)(TX_POW) is a weight thatvaries based on the TX_POW and thus the current power level of thetransmission signal 26. Similarly, the function f_(R)(RPC information,R_MAX) is a function that varies based on RPC information and RX_MAX andW_(R)(RX_RSSI) is a weight that varies based on the RX_RSSI and thus thecurrent power level of receive signal 28. It would be apparent to one ofordinary skill in the art how to determine the function f_(T)(TPCinformation, TX_MAX), weight W_(T)(TX_POW), function f_(R)(RPCinformation, RX_MAX), and weight W_(R)(RX_RSSI) in light of thisdisclosure. The power control process 228 described in FIG. 14 may becontinuously repeated to adjust the current power levels of thetransmission signal 26 and receive signal 28 to different desired powerlevels so long as the transmission signal 26 and the receive signal 28information stream are maintained and the transmit power controlsoftware module 116 and the receive power control software module 118have enabled changes to the pass band.

Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 15, FIG. 15 illustrates another type of S₁₁response 247 having a pass band 248 that may be provided by anotherconfiguration of the antenna tuner 14. The pass band 248 is determinedby the impedance response of the antenna tuner 14 and the antenna 12,and, in this case, is the impedance response as determined from thefirst multiplexer port 30. The pass band 248 has a transmission resonantfrequency f_(RT) associated with the transmission frequency f_(TX) ofthe physical uplink channel and also a receive resonant frequency f_(RR)associated with the receive frequency f_(RX) of the physical downlinkchannel. The pass band 248 thus allows for simultaneous matching at thetransmission frequency f_(TX) and the receive frequency f_(RX). In thisembodiment, transmission resonant frequency f_(RT) and receive resonantfrequency f_(RR) are near the edges of a frequency span 250 of the passband 248. The transmission resonant frequency f_(RT) and receiveresonant frequency f_(RR) are associated with two minima of the passband 248, which are frequencies at which a load impedance (in this casethe impedance of the antenna tuner 14 and antenna 12) matches a sourceimpedance (the impedance of the transceiver 10 at the first multiplexerport 30). Note that FIG. 15 shows the two minima of the S₁₁ response 247having around the same S₁₁ value. In some embodiments, this may not bethe case and the two minima of the transmission resonant frequencyf_(RT) and receive resonant frequency f_(RR) may have different S₁₁values.

Ideally, the transmission resonant frequency f_(RT) is precisely at thetransmission frequency f_(TX) and the receive resonant frequency f_(RR)is precisely at the receive frequency f_(RX). However, due to practicalconsiderations and non-ideal circuit behavior, this may not be the case.Nevertheless, the transmission frequency f_(TX) and receive frequencyf_(RX) should be provided within the 3 dB bandwidth 249 of thetransmission resonant frequency f_(RT) and the receive resonantfrequency f_(RR), respectively. Between the transmission resonantfrequency f_(RT) and the receive resonant frequency f_(RR) is anintermediate frequency, f_(i), which may be any frequency between thetransmission resonant frequency f_(RT) and the receive resonantfrequency f_(RR). In this example, the intermediate frequency, f_(i), isthe center frequency between the transmission resonant frequency f_(RT)and the receive resonant frequency f_(RR) and may have a value ofapproximately

$\frac{f_{RT} + f_{RR}}{2}.$The pass band 248 is degraded between the transmission resonantfrequency f_(RT) and the receive resonant frequency f_(RR). In thismanner, the pass band 248 sacrifices the Q-factor between thetransmission resonant frequency f_(RT) and the receive resonantfrequency f_(RR), where it may not be need, to provide a higher Q-factornear the transmission frequency f_(TX) and receive frequency f_(RX).

The antenna tuner software module 120 may utilize a process similar tothe pass band adjustment process 216 described for FIG. 11 above, totranspose the intermediate frequency, f_(i) between the transmissionfrequency f_(TX) and receive frequency f_(RX) of different transportchannels. Similarly, the frequency span 250 may be adjusted so that thetransmission frequency f_(TX) and receive frequency f_(RX) of thetransport channel are each within 3 dB bandwidth of the transmissionresonant frequency f_(RT) and the receive resonant frequency f_(RR).

Referring now to FIG. 1 and FIGS. 14-15, the antenna tuner softwaremodule 120 may utilize a process similar to the power control process228 described above for FIG. 14 except that, in this case, the antennatuner software module 120 may not generate data (steps 240 and 244) onthe antenna tuner control signal 80 that requests for a degradation ofthe pass band 248 towards either the physical uplink channel or physicaldownlink channel as shown in FIGS. 12 and 13. Instead, the datagenerated by the antenna tuner software module 120 (steps 240 and 244)may request further degradations to the pass band 248 between thetransmission resonant frequency f_(RT) and the receive resonantfrequency f_(RR) to provide even higher Q-factors around thetransmission frequency f_(TX) and receive frequency f_(RX). Note thatthis may shift the intermediate frequency, f_(i), towards thetransmission resonant frequency f_(RT) and the receive resonantfrequency f_(RR), particularly if unsymmetrical power level changes arerequested for the transmission signal 26 and the receive signal 28.Furthermore, the metric, f_(T)(TPC, TX_MAX)*W_(T)(TX_POW)+f_(R)(RPCinformation, RX_MAX)*W_(R)(RX_RSSI), may not need to be utilized sincethe pass band 248 may not need to be degraded towards either thephysical uplink channel or the physical

Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 16, FIG. 16 illustrates the S_(3,3)response 252 for the configuration of the antenna tuner 14 described inFIG. 15. The S_(3,3) response 252 has been calculated based on the freespace parameters of the antenna 255. Consequently, the S_(3,3) response252 is based on the approximated impedance response as seen from theantenna 12 into the transceiver 10. While the magnitudes of the S_(3,3)response 252 may be different than the magnitude of the S₁₁ response 247in FIG. 15, FIG. 16 illustrates that the S_(3,3) response 252 hasapproximately the same form as the S₁₁ response 247, the sameintermediate frequency, f_(i), the same transmission resonant frequencyf_(RT), and the same receive resonant frequency f_(RR) to allow formatching at the transmission frequency, f_(TX) and the receive frequencyf_(RX).

FIG. 17 illustrates one embodiment of an antenna tuner 254 coupled to anantenna 255 and that provides a pass band having the transmissionresonant frequency f_(RT), and the receive resonant frequency f_(RR) andallows for matching at both the transmission frequency f_(TX) and thereceive frequency f_(RX), as described above in FIGS. 15 and 16. Theantenna tuner 254 has a first capacitive element 256, which isconfigured to provide a variable capacitance. This first capacitiveelement 256 is coupled to a low-pass pi network 258 having a first shuntconnected segment 260, a second shunt connected segment 262, and a firstseries connected segment 264 that is coupled between the first shuntconnected segment 260 and the second shunt connected segment 262.

The illustrated antenna tuner 254 has been designed for and worksparticularly well if the components of the antenna tuner 254 aresubstantially lossless components. In this embodiment, the first seriesconnected segment 264 of the low-pass pi network 258 has a firstinductive element 266, which in this example is an inductor, and asecond capacitive element 268. The first series connected segment 264forms the series branch of the low-pass pi network 258. In addition, thefirst inductive element 266 and the second capacitive element 268 areconnected in series with each other within the first series connectedsegment 264.

The first shunt connected segment 260 has a third capacitive element 271coupled in parallel with a second inductive element 270 and, similarly,the second shunt connected segment 262 has a fourth capacitive element272 coupled in parallel with a third inductive element 274. In thisembodiment, the second capacitive element 268, the third capacitiveelement 271, and the fourth capacitive element 272 each have a variablecapacitance. The first capacitive element 256, the second capacitiveelement 268, the third capacitive element 271, and the fourth capacitiveelement 272, may all be PACs that are controllable by the antenna tunercontrol system. The first shunt connected segment 260 may be coupled inshunt at node 276 while the second shunt connected segment 262 isconnected in shunt at node 278 with the first series connected segment264.

The first shunt connected segment 260 and the second shunt connectedsegment 262 allow the antenna tuner 254 to have the pass band with boththe transmission resonant frequency f_(RT), and the receive resonantfrequency f_(RR). The first shunt connected segment 260 resonates withthe first series connected segment 264 to provide resonance at thereceive resonant frequency f_(RR). The second shunt connected segment262 resonates with the first series connected segment 264 to provideresonance at the transmission resonant frequency f_(RT). By varying thecapacitance of the second capacitive element 268, the third capacitiveelement 271, and the fourth capacitive element 272 characteristics ofthe pass band 248, such as the degradation of the pass band 248 betweenthe transmission resonant frequency f_(RT), and the receive resonantfrequency f_(RR), and the Q-factor of the transmission resonantfrequency f_(RT), and the receive resonant frequency f_(RR) may beadjusted.

To transpose the pass band 248, the first capacitive element 256 iscoupled in series with an antenna input terminal 280, which couples theantenna tuner 254 to the antenna 255. The first capacitive element 256is coupled in series with the antenna 255. The first capacitive element256 is also coupled in series between the antenna input terminal 280 andthe node 276 so as to be coupled in series with the low-pass pi network258. The variable capacitance of the first capacitive element 256 may beselected to series resonate with the antenna 255, which may have aninductive reactance. In this manner, the intermediate frequency, f_(i),is set and varying the variable capacitance of the first capacitiveelement 256 transposes the pass band 248 along the frequency spectrum toplace the pass band 248 between the desired transmission resonantfrequency f_(RT), and the receive resonant frequency f_(RR). Thus, theantenna tuner control system can control the variable capacitances ofthe first capacitive element 256, the second capacitive element 268, thethird capacitive element 271, and the fourth capacitive element 272 toadjust the characteristics of the pass band 248 in accordance with TPCinformation and RPC information.

The topology illustrated in FIG. 17 works particularly well when thefirst capacitive element 256 and the low-pass pi network 258 arelossless components. In one configuration, the antenna tuner 254 wasconfigured to provide a pass band 248 for a transport channel having atransmission frequency of 825 MHz, a receive frequency of 870 MHz, whichare offset from an intermediate frequency of 847 MHz. The antenna 255has an inductive value of approximately 14 nH. The pass band 248provided a return loss of over −20 dB at both the transmit frequency 825MHz and the receive frequency 870 MHz. The transmit resonant frequencyand the receive resonant frequency of the pass band 248 were almostprecisely at 825 MHz and the 870 MHz respectively.

FIG. 18 illustrates another embodiment of an antenna tuner 282 thatprovides a pass band similar to the pass band 248 in FIG. 15. Theantenna tuner 282 also has a first capacitive element 284 to seriesresonate with a low-band antenna 286, and a low-pass pi network 288 toprovide a transmission resonant frequency and a receive resonantfrequency. In this case, the first capacitive element 284 and thelow-pass pi network 288 introduce loss and thus may have a substantialresistance. The low-pass pi network 288 also has a first shunt connectedsegment 290, a second shunt connected segment 292, and a first seriesconnected segment 294 that is coupled between the first shunt connectedsegment 290 and the second shunt connected segment 292. In this case,the first series connected segment 294 has a first inductive element 296while the first shunt connected segment 290 and the second shuntconnected segment 292 each have a second capacitive element 298 and athird capacitive element 300, respectively. The first inductive element296 may be a 50 Ohm transmission line that has an inductance at 18degrees around 800 MHz.

The first capacitive element 256 is coupled in series between theantenna input terminal 302 and the node 304 so as to be coupled inseries with the low-pass pi network 288. At node 306 of the first seriesconnected segment 294, a fourth capacitive element 308 is coupled inseries with the low-pass pi network 288. The first capacitive element284, the second capacitive element 298, third capacitive element 300,and fourth capacitive element 308 each have variable capacitances andmay be PACs. In this case, the low-band antenna 286 also has aninductive value of 14 nH. The transmission frequency is provided around880 MHz and the receive frequency is around 925 MHz. The pass band mayhave a receive resonant frequency of around 890 MHz and a transmissionresonant frequency of around 915 MHz with an intermediate frequency ofthe pass band around 910 MHz. and thus has been shifted towards thephysical downlink channel. At the transmission frequency of 880 MHz thereturn loss is around −16.1 dB and the receive frequency of 925 MHz thereturn loss is around −14.9 dB.

FIG. 19 illustrates yet another embodiment of an antenna tuner 310, inthis case coupled to a high-band antenna 312. The antenna tuner 310provides a pass band similar to the pass band 248 in FIG. 15, except athigh band frequencies. The antenna tuner 310 also has a first capacitiveelement 314 to series resonate with the high-band antenna 312, and alow-pass pi network 316 that provides a transmission resonant frequencyand a receive resonant frequency. In this case, the first capacitiveelement 314 and the low-pass pi network 316 are assumed to be losslessand do not have a substantial resistance. The low-pass pi network 316also has a first shunt connected segment 318, a second shunt connectedsegment 320, and a first series connected segment 322 that is coupledbetween the first shunt connected segment 318 and the second shuntconnected segment 320. In this case, the first series connected segment322 has a first inductive element 324 while the first shunt connectedsegment 318 and the second shunt connected segment 320 each have asecond capacitive element 326 and a third capacitive element 328,respectively. The first inductive element 324 may be an inductor havingan inductance of 1.5 nH.

The first capacitive element 314 is coupled in series between theantenna input terminal 330 and the node 332 so as to be coupled inseries with the low-pass pi network 316. At node 334 of the first seriesconnected segment 322, a second inductive element 329 is coupled inseries with the low-pass pi network 316. The first capacitive element314, the second capacitive element 326, third capacitive element 328,each have variable capacitances and may be PACs. In this case, thehigh-band antenna 312 is modeled with free space parameters. Thetransmission frequency is provided around 1920 MHz and the receivefrequency is around 2110 MHz for the transport channel. The pass bandmay have a receive resonant frequency of around 1.9 GHz and atransmission resonant frequency of around 2.15 GHz with an intermediatefrequency of the pass band around 2 GHz. and thus the intermediatefrequency has been shifted towards the physical downlink channel. At thetransmission frequency of 1920 MHz, the return loss is around −7.30 dBand, at the receive frequency of 2110 MHz, the return loss is around−7.33 dB.

Referring now to FIG. 20, FIG. 20 illustrates one embodiment of a dualband antenna tuner 336. The dual band antenna tuner 336 includes theantenna tuner 282, as described above in FIG. 18, tunes the low-bandantenna 286. The dual band antenna tuner 336, as described above in FIG.19, tunes the high-band antenna 312. Also shown is an antenna tunercontrol device 338 that controls the dual band antenna tuner 336. Thefirst capacitive element 284, the second capacitive element 298, thethird capacitive element 300, and the fourth capacitive element 308 ofthe antenna tuner 282 are illustrated as PACs having switches thatcontrol the connections to the array of capacitors and thus vary thecapacitive values of the PACs. Similarly, the first capacitive element314, the second capacitive element 326, and the third capacitive element328 of the antenna tuner 310 are illustrated as PACs. The antenna tunercontrol device 338 receives an antenna tuner control signal 340 andvaries these capacitive values accordingly.

The switches in the PACs are actuated by a driver 342 that is operableto provide voltages at +2.5/−2.5 volts. The driver 342 may utilize acharge pump 344 to provide these voltages. A controller 346 of theantenna tuner control device 338 may include a processor and chip memorywith computer executable instructions that set the impedance values ofthe various capacitive elements 284, 298, 300, 308, 314, 326, 328, and310 utilizing the driver 342. The controller may be communicablyassociated with an interface 350 such as a two wire mobile industryprocessor interface (MIPI) or a simple 1 wire control interface. In thealternative, the interface 350 may be a custom RF-Bus, or the like. Theinterface 350 may receive an antenna tuner control signal 354, asdescribed above, to process and set the impedance response of theantenna tuner 282 and the antenna tuner 310 accordingly.

A low drop out regulator (LDO) 352 may be utilized to provide a directsupply voltage from the battery or to receive a regulated supply fromthe V_(dd) line for low battery voltage applications. The firstcapacitive element 284 of the antenna tuner 282 and the first capacitiveelement 314 of the antenna tuner 310 allows for a counter clock-wiseimpedance rotation of the antenna impedance to transform low-band andhigh-band impedances at both the transmit and receive frequencies forCode Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Long Term Evolution (LTE)transport channels.

The dual band antenna tuner 336 is coupled to a multiplexer 348 thatallows for the transmission and reception of a plurality of high-bandand low-band transport channels on both the high-band antenna 312 andthe low-band antenna 286. For each high-band and low-band transportchannels the transmit circuit and receiver circuit of a transceiver mayinclude a plurality of transmit and receiver chains. The controller 346may be utilized to determine the delivered power and to determineadjustments to the capacitive values in the antenna tuner 282 andantenna tuner 310 to maximize the delivered power.

The dual band antenna tuner 336 and the antenna tuner control device 338may be built on a silicon on insulator (SOI) die with CX50 laminate. Asilicon on sapphire (SOS) die may also be utilized or, in thealternative, a micro-electromechanical substrate (MEMS) or a bariumstrontium titanate substrate (BST). Conformal shielding may also beprovided to protect the dual band antenna tuner 336 and antenna tunercontrol device 338 from external electromagnetic emissions and toprevent internal electromagnetic emissions from effecting externalcomponents.

FIG. 21 has essentially the same components as those described above forFIG. 20, except that only a single high-band/low-band antenna 356 isused for both low-band and high-band operation. The high-band/low-bandantenna 356 is coupled to both of the antenna tuner 282 and the antennatuner 310. The first capacitive elements 284, 314 may be set to itsminimum value when one of the antenna tuners 282, 310 is turned offwhile the other antenna tuner 310, 282 is turned on. This configurationallows for the use of one high-band/low-band antenna 356 to provide bothlow-band and high-band operation and either low-band and high-bandoperation may be selected by manipulating the capacitive value of thefirst capacitive elements 284, 314 to thereby select the antenna tuner282, 310.

Those skilled in the art will recognize improvements and modificationsto the preferred embodiments of the present disclosure. All suchimprovements and modifications are considered within the scope of theconcepts disclosed herein and the claims that follow.

What is claimed is:
 1. A transceiver, comprising: a transmitter circuitoperable to up convert a first transmission signal into a first physicaluplink channel, the transmitter circuit having: a transmissionamplification circuit having a first adjustable gain and a maximum powerlevel that is providable by the first adjustable gain of thetransmission amplification circuit, wherein the transmissionamplification circuit is operable to amplify the first transmissionsignal in accordance with the first adjustable gain; and a couplerconnected to generate a transmit feedback signal having a signal levelassociated with a current power level of the first transmission signal;an antenna tuner having an impedance response, wherein the antenna tuneris coupled to receive the first transmission signal from thetransmission amplification circuit; a receiver circuit operable to downconvert a first receive signal out of a first physical downlink channel,wherein the first receive signal includes transmission power controlinformation for adjusting the current power level of the firsttransmission signal to a first desired power level; and a power controlsystem operably associated with the transmitter circuit wherein thepower control system is configured to: adjust the first adjustable gainof the transmission amplification circuit based on the signal level ofthe transmit feedback signal and the transmission power controlinformation so as to reduce a difference between the current power levelof the first transmission signal and the first desired power level; andadjust the impedance response of the antenna tuner to reduce thedifference between the current power level of the first transmissionsignal and the first desired power level when the maximum power levelthat is providable by the first adjustable gain is reached by thetransmission amplification circuit and when the first desired powerlevel is above the maximum power level of the transmission amplificationcircuit.
 2. The transceiver of claim 1, wherein the coupler comprises: afirst port coupled to receive the first transmission signal from thetransmission amplification circuit; a second port coupled to transmitthe first transmission signal; and a third port for transmitting thetransmit feedback signal, wherein the third port is magneticallyconnected to the second port.
 3. The transceiver of claim 1, furthercomprising an up converter circuit operable to receive the firsttransmission signal at baseband and up convert the first transmissionsignal into the first physical uplink channel.
 4. The transceiver ofclaim 3, wherein the transmission amplification circuit is connectedwithin the transmitter circuit so as to amplify the first transmissionsignal after being up converted into the first physical uplink channelby the up converter circuit.
 5. The transceiver of claim 1, furthercomprising a multiplexer having: a first port coupled to provide thefirst transmission signal within the first physical downlink channel toan antenna and to receive the first receive signal within the firstphysical downlink channel from the antenna; a second port coupled toreceive the first transmission signal within the first physical uplinkchannel from the transmitter circuit; and a third port coupled toprovide the first receive signal within the first physical downlinkchannel to the receiver circuit.
 6. The transceiver of claim 1, wherein:the first transmission signal comprises a first uplink data element,wherein the first uplink data element is associated with a first poweradjustment time period for adjusting the current power level of thefirst transmission signal and is associated with the transmission powercontrol information for adjusting the first transmission signal to thefirst desired power level; the power control system being furtheradapted to: repeatedly detect the difference between the current powerlevel of the first transmission signal and the first desired power levelduring the first power adjustment time period; and repeatedly adjust thefirst adjustable gain to reduce the difference between the current powerlevel of the first transmission signal and the first desired power levelduring the first power adjustment time period so long as the differenceindicates that the current power level and the first desired power levelhave not been substantially eliminated.
 7. The transceiver of claim 6,wherein: the transmission power control information includes power stepinformation defining a magnitude of power change and directioninformation defining a direction of power change; the power controlsystem is further adapted to detect the difference between the currentpower level of the first transmission signal and the first desired powerlevel during the first power adjustment time period by: prior toadjusting the first adjustable gain, determining the current power levelbased on the signal level of the transmit feedback signal and determinethe first desired power level based on the current power level, thepower step information, and the direction information; comparing thecurrent power level and the first desired power level to provide a firstgain adjustment for the first adjustable gain; and after adjusting thefirst adjustable gain in accordance with the first gain adjustment,again determining the current power level based on the signal level ofthe transmit feedback signal so long as the difference indicates thatthe current power level and the first desired power level are notsubstantially equal; and the power control system is further adapted torepeatedly adjust the first adjustable gain to reduce the differencebetween the current power level and the first desired power level duringthe first power adjustment time period so long as the differenceindicates that the current power level and the first desired power levelhave not been substantially eliminated by: adjusting the firstadjustable gain in accordance with the first gain adjustment; and afteradjusting the first adjustable gain in accordance with the first gainadjustment, continually adjusting the first adjustable gain until thedifference indicates that the current power level and the first desiredpower level have been substantially eliminated.
 8. The transceiver ofclaim 6, wherein: the first receive signal comprises a plurality ofdownlink data elements, each of the plurality of downlink data elementsincluding the transmission power control information for adjusting thefirst transmission signal to a respective desired power level, whereinone of the plurality of downlink data elements includes the transmissionpower control information for adjusting the first transmission signal tothe first desired power level; the first transmission signal comprisesone or more additional uplink data elements, each associated with arespective power adjustment time period for adjusting the current powerlevel of the first transmission signal, wherein each of the one or moreadditional uplink data elements is associated with the transmit powercontrol information of at least one of the plurality of downlink dataelements; and for each one of the one or more additional uplink dataelements, the power control system is further adapted to adjust thefirst adjustable gain of the transmission amplification circuit, duringa respective time period associated with the one of the one or moreadditional uplink data elements, based on the signal level of thetransmit feedback signal and the transmission power control informationassociated with the one of the one or more additional uplink dataelements so as to reduce a difference between the current power level ofthe first transmission signal and the respective desired power level. 9.The transceiver of claim 8, wherein each of the plurality of downlinkdata elements is selected from a group consisting of a downlink dataframe defined by the first physical downlink channel, a downlink datasub-frame defined by the first physical downlink channel, and a downlinkdata slot defined by the first physical downlink channel.
 10. Thetransceiver of claim 8, wherein each of the first uplink data elementand the one or more additional uplink data elements is selected from agroup consisting of an uplink data frame defined by the first physicaluplink channel, an uplink data sub-frame defined by the first physicaluplink channel, and an uplink data slot defined by the first physicaluplink channel.
 11. The transceiver of claim 10, wherein the respectivepower adjustment time period for each of the first uplink data elementand the one or more additional uplink data elements is defined based onthe each of the first uplink data element and the one or more additionaluplink data elements.
 12. The transceiver of claim 8, wherein: each ofthe plurality of downlink data elements is selected from a groupconsisting of a downlink data frame defined by the first physicaldownlink channel, a downlink data sub-frame defined by the firstphysical downlink channel, and a downlink data slot defined by the firstphysical downlink channel; and the respective power adjustment timeperiod for each of the first uplink data element and the one or moreadditional uplink data elements is defined by the plurality of downlinkdata elements.
 13. The transceiver of claim 1, wherein the firstphysical uplink channel is selected from a group consisting of an uplinkdedicated physical control channel, an uplink enhanced dedicatedphysical control channel, an uplink common control channel, an uplinkhigh speed dedicated physical control channel, and an uplink physicalrandom access channel.
 14. The transceiver of claim 1, wherein the firstphysical downlink channel is selected from a group consisting of adownlink dedicated physical channel, a downlink enhanced dedicatedphysical channel, a downlink fractional dedicated physical channel, adownlink enhanced dedicated relative grant channel, a downlink enhancedhybrid indicator channel, a downlink physical random access channel, adownlink primary common control physical channel, a downlink secondarycommon control physical channel, and a downlink high speed sharedcontrol physical channel.
 15. The transceiver of claim 1, wherein thetransmitter circuit is further operable to receive one or moreadditional transmission signals and to up convert each of the one ormore additional transmission signals into one of one or more additionalphysical uplink channels, the transmitter circuit further comprising:one or more additional transmission amplification circuits for each oneof the one or more additional transmission signals, each of the one ormore additional transmission amplification circuits having a respectiveadjustable gain and being operable to amplify the one of the one or moreadditional transmission signals in accordance with the respectiveadjustable gain; and the power control system being operable to adjustthe respective adjustable gain of each of the one or more additionaltransmission amplification circuits based on a relationship between therespective adjustable gain of the one or more additional transmissionamplification circuits and the first adjustable gain of the transmissionamplification circuit.
 16. A method of controlling transmission power ina mobile user device communicating with a base station, comprising:generating, at the mobile user device, a first transmission signal; upconverting, at the mobile user device, the first transmission signalinto a first physical uplink channel utilizing a transmitter circuit;amplifying the first transmission signal in accordance with a firstadjustable gain by the transmitter circuit; receiving, from the basestation and at the mobile user device, transmission power controlinformation for adjusting a current power level of the firsttransmission signal to a first desired power level; transmitting, fromthe mobile user device and to the base station, the first transmissionsignal after the up converting of the first transmission signal into thefirst physical uplink channel; detecting, at the mobile user device, asignal level of the first transmission signal within the transmittercircuit wherein the signal level is associated with the current powerlevel of the first transmission signal; adjusting the first adjustablegain to reduce a difference between the current power level and thefirst desired power level of the first transmission signal; andadjusting an impedance response of an antenna tuner to reduce thedifference between the current power level and the first desired powerlevel of the first transmission signal when the maximum power level thatis providable by the first adjustable gain is reached by a transmissionamplification circuit and when the first desired power level is abovethe maximum power level of the transmission amplification circuit. 17.The method of claim 16, wherein receiving, from the base station and atthe mobile user device, the transmission power control information foradjusting the current power level of the first transmission signal tothe first desired power level comprises receiving, at the mobile userdevice and from the base station, a first receive signal within a firstphysical downlink channel that includes the transmission power controlinformation; and down converting the first receive signal out of thefirst physical downlink channel.
 18. The method of claim 17, wherein:the first receive signal comprises a plurality of downlink dataelements, each of the plurality of downlink data elements including thetransmission power control information for adjusting the firsttransmission signal to a respective desired power level, wherein one ofthe plurality of downlink data elements includes the transmission powercontrol information for adjusting the first transmission signal to thefirst desired power level; and the first transmission signal comprises afirst uplink data element associated with a first power adjustment timeperiod and with the transmission power control information for adjustingthe first transmission signal to the first desired power level, and oneor more additional uplink data elements each associated with arespective power adjustment time period and with the transmission powercontrol information of one of the plurality of downlink data elements.19. The method of claim 18, further comprising: wherein adjusting thefirst adjustable gain to reduce the difference between the current powerlevel and the first desired power level of the first transmission signalis performed during the first power adjustment time period so long asthe current power level and the first desired power level are notsubstantially equal; and for each one of the one or more additionaluplink data elements, adjusting the first adjustable gain to reduce adifference between the current power level and the respective desiredpower level of the first transmission signal associated with the one ofthe one or more additional uplink data elements during the respectivepower adjustment time period so long as the current power level and therespective desired power level are not substantially equal.
 20. Anon-transitory computer readable medium that stores computer-executableinstructions for implementing a method in a mobile user device, whereinthe method comprises: extracting transmission power control informationfrom a first receive signal, wherein the transmission power controlinformation is for adjusting a first transmission signal to a firstdesired power level; receiving a transmit feedback signal from atransmitter circuit, wherein the transmitter circuit is operable to upconvert a transmission signal into a first physical uplink channel, thetransmit feedback signal having a signal level associated with a currentpower level of the first transmission signal; determining a differencebetween the current power level of the first transmission signal and thefirst desired power level based on the signal level of the transmitfeedback signal and the transmission power control information;adjusting a first adjustable gain in a transmission amplificationcircuit within the transmitter circuit based on the difference betweenthe current power level of the first transmission signal and the firstdesired power level; and adjusting an impedance response of an antennatuner to reduce the difference between the current power level of thefirst transmission signal and the first desired power level when amaximum power level that is providable by the first adjustable gain isreached by the transmission amplification circuit and when the firstdesired power level is above the maximum power level of the transmissionamplification circuit.